On Obligations: de Officiis

"Office, fame, virtue, glory and natural talent" This epitaph for a young Roman from one of the patrician families summarizes in brief the ideal life of the patricians. It also serves in some ways as a crib on Cicero's book under review. The plan of my review is fairly straight forward. I will talk briefly about the qualities of this edition of On Duties, the historical situation of its creation, give a summary of its contents and influence and then make one or two remarks as to it utility for these times. For this is a book that is meant to serve as a guide to practical ethics. It should be read on those grounds- what does it teach us about how to live? But first a note about my inadequacies. I have no Latin and have only begun recently anything like a study of Roman history and philosophy. I may very well not know what I am talking about. But then that is true of all of us. If I make any obvious errors, please let me know in the comments. First, I love this edition of the work. The scholarly appartus is superbly done and very helpful. These include a good introduction, principal dates of Cicero's life, a plan of the various contemporary schools of philosophy and a summary of their doctrines, a bibliography, a synopsis of the work, biographical notes on the individuals named by Cicero and two indexes. The synopsis and the biographical notes I found to be very useful. I found the structure of Cicero's argument to be somewhat odd and the synopsis several times served to orient my understanding. This book was written during a period of crisis for Cicero. In the same year that Cicero wrote this book Caesar was named dictator and assassinated and the wars that would lead to Octavian becoming emperor had begun. Cicero had been somewhat retired for the previous few years and was finishing up an extraordinary burst of writing. On Duties would be the last of his writings. He was also involved in delivering The Philippic against Anthony. He would be killed the following year. The previous reviewer makes much of the fact that On Duty is written to his son. The younger Cicero is spoken to several times in the work. The elder Cicero is offering him a Practical Ethic that will come from a different direction and tradition than that of Crattipus with whom Marcus is studying. But the book is more than that. In many ways it is an early example of the "mirror for princes" genre. Yes, it is directed toward the younger Cicero but it is also directed toward any and all of the patricians who would listen. It is also an apologia por vita sui; in this book Cicero holds his own career up as a paragon and uses every opportunity to attack Caesar and Anthony. This is one of the ways that Cicero is closer to the heroes of Homer than to the modern reader. No becoming modesty for Cicero. What we have here is a practical ethic for an elite, a military and political elite that competed with each other for office, fame, the reputation of virtue and glory. There is no metaphys

If you can make it through the tough readings you will profit much, it is one of the best books i have ever read.

I'm not sure why we ignore our ancient wisdom. We seem to be well-fed on eastern paradox and mysticism, but we have lost the tradition of reason and cross-examination that brought stability and technology to the world. We heard the cry, "If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we . . ." Part of the reason is that the nature of a moon-shot may be different than the nature of curing breast cancer, wining the war on terrorism within the time-frame of WWII, or solving social problems. The other part of the reason is that we have abandoned the fundamental principles of Western Civilization that brought us Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. When we left theses core truths, we undid several thousand years of progress, and have returned to a faux primitive and savagery. Emotion has supplanted, reason, mercy has robbed justice, and catchphrases have replaced fundamental platitudes. In short, we have abandoned the mind, and are left with the stomach. In "On Duties," Cicero drives a dagger in the heart of today's ills. This book's theme is justice as it related to social duties. It is essentially pedagogical, and like Aristotle's Ethics, is written as advice to his growing son. We speak of Motherlove, but this book embodies Fatherlove, or all the good and ideal aspects of paternalism. As with all good philosophers, he is easy to understand, once you get the feel for philosophical banter. C. S. Lewis observed "The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire." As you read "On Duties," you get the feel that Cicero is operating under a very different set of values. As I mentioned, the ancient world was founded upon justice and reason, and our post-modern world is founded upon mercy and emotion, with disastrous consequences. We need to be sensitive to these differences, since our assumptions are blind spots. As Lewis added, "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones." This book is good for understanding the ancient mind, and great for personal development. Clearly and logically, Cicero explains the interplay between duty, advantage and righteousness. You many not agree with him, but Cicero did do his homework, has a point, and when he is wrong, he is wrong for the right reasons.

It is a well done translation with both the english and latin making for easy reading. The subject is as appropriate today as when Cicero wrote it to his son.

De Officiis, or "On Duties," was the second book printed on Gutenberg's printing press. Apparently, Gutenberg and his other contemporaries knew how important the press was so they wanted to give props to the Bible, as the most important book ever written/compiled-but along those lines he decided to print Cicero's classic shortly thereafter. Cicero wrote this book as a series of letters to his prodigal child, who had little ambition to be a correct man, like his father was. Consequently, it reads like good advice from your father. Some of the greatest logos on ethics comes from this book. He will convince you that being an ethical person is the only way to live, and he does it through expediency-"whether the action contemplated is or is not conducive to comfort and happiness in life, to the command of means and wealth, to influence, and to power." The gist of it is that having good moral character will bring you more expediency in the long run than any illicit behavior. Maintaining power, increasing wealth and influence will naturally be easiest to those men and women with high moral character. Most books on ethics and morality are not widely credible. The reason is that those great books are religious texts, claimed by those sects to be inspired by God, which is why they are incredible to many who are not members of that particular faith. But Cicero's De Officiis is recognized by all-because it is a secular book. So if you want to quote a high authority on morality, quote Cicero. Here is a preview of the good quotes: "For self control is the foe of the passions, and the passions are the handmaids of pleasure."