Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Abstract
The third and fourth books of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero presents the insights of Greek philosophers on the subject, reporting the views of Epicureans and Peripatetics and giving a detailed account of the Stoic position, which he himself favors for its close reasoning and moral earnestness. This book gives the Stoics' analysis of the causes of grief, their classification of emotions by genus and species, their lists of oddly named character flaws, and by t ... More
The third and fourth books of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero presents the insights of Greek philosophers on the subject, reporting the views of Epicureans and Peripatetics and giving a detailed account of the Stoic position, which he himself favors for its close reasoning and moral earnestness. This book gives the Stoics' analysis of the causes of grief, their classification of emotions by genus and species, their lists of oddly named character flaws, and by the philosophical debate that develops over the utility of anger in politics and war. This translation makes Cicero's work accessible. The accompanying commentary explains the philosophical concepts discussed in the text and supplies many helpful parallels from Greek sources.
Keywords:
Cicero,
Tusculan Disputations,
Epicureans,
Peripatetics,
Stoic position,
emotions,
grief,
character flaws,
politics,
war
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2002 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226305776 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226305196.001.0001 |
