Cicero and Stoicism :: History Philosophy Philosophical Cicero

Cicero, was truly a man of the state. His writings also show us he was e really bit a man of philosophical temperament and affluence. Yet at times these two forces within Cicero clash and contradict with the early stoic teachings. Cicero gradually choose the stoic lifestyle but not altogether entirely, and this is somewhat due to the fact of what it was like to be a papistical of the time. The morals of everyday capital of Italy conflicted with some of the stoic ideals that were set by early stoicism. Thus, Cicero changed the face of stoicism by romanizing it redefining stoicism into the middle phase. Of Cicero it can be said he feature a bias towards roman life and doctrine. For Cicero every answer lay within Rome itself, from the ideal governing body to the place of divination. Cicero does not furnish any alternate answers to roman society, which robs him of being truly a unique and bold political philosopher. This is not to say however some of his doctrines are untrue, depend able that he is somewhat blinded by his roman beliefs and assumptions. The assumptions of Cicero can be noticed when one inspects his view of the ideal governing body, which he expresses through Scipio (in the commonwealth). Although Cicero presents very convincing arguments for a Composite government, clearly his view is possibly only due towards his belief in the roman structure of government.1 Cicero was limited to roman borders of experience, and this story was best illustrated by his disagreement with Aristotles writings on the decay of states. Cicero was unable to think on the level of Aristotles logic. He quite simply used roman history as a mapping of the paths of the decay of states. In contrast, Aristotle understood the underlying forces and influences that transpired when a state degraded. Cicero quite frankly could not understand the forces which Aristotle so eloquently denoted. For Cicero, history offered the only possible paths of outcomes the forces and behaviors pla yed little part on the resulting state.2 A further point of philosophical belief which Cicero contradicted the stoic lifestyle, is religion. romish tradition conflicted greatly with stoic doctrine, and the two philosophies could never truly harmonize with one another. This point brought the distinction between the Greek learned world of intellect, and the tralatitious religious roman patronage. This observation literally draws a line between the two worlds, that of knowledge and reason opposing that of tradition and sentiment.