Cicero's Skepticism and His Recovery of Political Philosophy

ISBN-13: 9781349954377 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 283 str.

Walter Nicgorski

Recenzje

"Nicgorski's book is remarkable, engaging the most difficult features of Cicero's thought and yielding a loving and careful portrait of its unity. ... it is no exaggeration to say that Nicgorski, as both teacher and scholar, has played a key role in the resurgence of interest in Cicero's thought." (Daniel J. Kapust, Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 17 (03), August, 2018)

"Nicgorski has doubtless done something both impressive and praiseworthy in this mature, balanced, and heartfelt book: without recourse to the tired trope of 'Cicero's changing views' (49-50n57), and with admirable interpretive eclecticism combined with wide-ranging erudition ... ." (William H.F. Altman, Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 38 (01), 2018)

"Nicgorski makes a convincing case that Cicero does not rank the theoretical way of life over the practical way of life. ... For Nicgorski to establish that conclusion in such rich detail-covering the entirety of Cicero's philosophy, not falling victim to historicism or relativism, not devoting unnecessary effort to tracing Cicero's sources, displaying an encyclopedic command of secondary material-is a great achievement." (David Fott, Interpretation - A Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 43 (3), 2017)

Spis treści

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Series Editors Foreword

Prefatory Note

Chronology of Cicero's Life and Writings

Introduction      

Chapter 1 Skepticism, Politics and a Philosophical Foundation

Cicero's Skepticism

          Skepticism Versus Wisdom

            Skepticism in the Service of Wisdom

Chapter 2 The Critical and Rhetorical Modes of Philosophy

          Socratic Method    

Socratic Irony and Socratic Skepticism

The Socratic Way of Life

The Mixed Modes of Cicero 

Perfecta Philosophia

   

Chapter 3 Duties and Virtue

The Right and the Useful

             Nature, Natural Law and the Virtues

          The Norms of Utility

          The Primary Need: Statesmanship

          Assessing the Philosophical Schools

Chapter 4 Political Philosophy and the Roman Republic

The Loving Quarrel With Plato

The Imagery of Contract and the Role of Consent 

The Assertion and Implication of Equality

The Nature of Genuine Progress

Property: End or Means?

Beyond the Roman Community

 Friendship’s Role in Statesmanship

 The Troubled Path of Glory

 Virtue as True Glory

Epilogue                     

References

Index of Citations of Cicero

Index 

O autorze

Walter Nicgorski is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, USA.  He is editor of and contributor to Cicero’s Practical Philosophy (2012), co-editor and contributor to Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker (1994) and An Almost Chosen People: The Moral Aspirations of Americans (1977).   Key topics of his published essays are Cicero, liberal and character education, American political foundations, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom, and Yves Simon.