CICERO AND PHILOSOPHY AS TEXT

Abstract

Philosophy for Cicero implies not only a way of life taught orally in a school but also reading and writing. This foreshadows his influence on the later Latin tradition, which identified philosophy with the meaning and evaluation of texts, and ultimately replaced its conception as an autonomous way of life. I propose four factors in Cicero’s influence: initiating the tradition of Latin philosophical prose; developing its vocabulary; the choice of a rhetorical over a dialectical mode; and locating discussion in the context of libraries, reading and book production.