In 1771, Thomas Jefferson’s brother-in-law wrote to ask for a shortlist of books “suited to the capacity of a common reader who understands but little of the classicks and who has not leisure for any intricate or tedious study.”
Jefferson responded with eight philosophy/ethics/religious classics he thought belonged in everyone’s personal library. Alongside big-name books by Locke, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Xenophon, we find a thinker who seems misplaced by the standards of today — Cicero. Specifically, his Tusculan Disputations.
Cicero is known as a Roman politician, orator, and lawyer, and when modern people remember he wrote philosophy books at all, they usually think they’re unoriginal summations. Cicero wasn’t dogmatic and didn’t found a school or a theory. He’s technically of the “Academic Sceptic” school of philosophy, but that’s like saying he’s dogmatic about not being dogmatic. So today, he’s usually written off in favor of those with stronger opinions.
But it wasn’t just Jefferson who valued Cicero’s practical philosophy highly. Tusculan Disputations inspired Ben Franklin’s famous “bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection,” which he discussed in his Autobiography. President John Adams’s letters and speeches are peppered with Cicero’s philosophy. Go back further, and we find Montaigne and a great many Renaissance thinkers holding him in the highest regard.
I’d like to suggest that moderns writing off Cicero’s philosophy isn’t warranted — that, in fact, he was as incisive philosophically as he was in the senate house and courtroom. Whatever academics think, we can learn a lot about living the good life from Cicero. Tusculum Disputations is a great entry point to his ideas. Whether you consider yourself influenced by Socrates and Plato, the Stoics, the Epicureans, or are just looking for some tools to live well, this book has something to offer you.
This is moral philosophy. But Cicero isn’t preachy, but honest, and kind of raw.
When he speaks about greed, envy, jealousy and other “perturbations of soul”, remember that he struggled against all of them as an up-and-coming noboddy who rose to prominence through sheer grit and made many enemies along the way. When he speaks about grief, consider that he’d just buried Tullia, his beloved daughter. When he asks if virtue is enough for a good life, know that he’d recently lost practically everything he valued except virtue.
There are few thinkers more suited to today’s problems than Cicero, and I hope you’ll join me in April as we read along together, dissect, and discuss the book.
Although I prefer literal, word-for-word translations for philosophical works, there aren’t any of those for Tusculum Disputations. But here is a slightly looser but still excellent translation by a US lawyer George J. Thomas, who writes under the pen name Quintus Curtius. The writing is clear and conveys Cicero’s clear thinking, if not his exact style of speaking. He’s thorough about accurately translating Greek and Latin philosophical terms into English equivalents, and notes what he’s doing. The footnotes on each page make it easy to understand the often obscure references from antiquity. It’s probably the best translation for most people.
The only significant contender to Curtius is the John Edward King translation from Loeb. It’s upside is that it contains the original Latin next to the translation, so you can double-check anything to see what Cicero really said. I suspect most people won’t care, however. The translation is fine, but it’s a century old, and the language feels a bit creaky.
March 29th: This email goes out. Order your copy ASAP.
April: I’ll be writing 1 or 2 companion essays about Cicero and Tusculan Disputations each week.
April 30th (Thursday, 7:30 p.m. CST): Zoom group discussion for paid subscribers (I offer discounts if you need one).
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Hope you’ll read along with us!
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