Stoic Week 2014- Day 2: Marcus Tullius Cicero's Stoic Paradoxes

Thanks for the video! I'm trying to recommit myself to thinking about this sort of thing but I'm too busy (insane premedical student) to do a serious study of books themselves anymore--do you know of any channels similar to yours that produce content I can think about while walking about? I've tried to use audiobooks of philosophy but I find most of them too dense to easily digest in my free time between work

Is it wrong to see Cicero´s philosophical work as a lecture of a good professor? His works are rather easy to understand and his practical point of view is quite interesting, but not really world changing, right (that´s what some people told me)? I read at the moment de re publica, because my Greek is at the moment worse then just bad and I really appreciate it for its readability!

These are excellent. btw..having reached 60 years I have eliminated "happiness" as a goal and am quite content with replacing it with "tranquility."

Why does everyone, today, say that 'rhetoric is the art of persuasion' when Quintilian said, "Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric is the Philosophy of Virtue and Eloquence"?

Quintilian said the path to becoming the perfect man, of whom he said Cicero was the closest to that ideal, is to follow this 'Philosophy', by emulating Cicero to start with.

When did this change, historically? When did being virtuous and eloquent fall out of favor? Was it directly replaced by Locke and the pursuit of happiness for the great unwashed masses? Is it just easier to control oafish fools slavishly pursuing external happiness than eloquent sages freely pursuing internal virtue?

Was this change directly correlated to the Christian doctrine being forced down everyone's throats through the time of the inquisition or did it start earlier with Constantine? Does it predate him even?

I am not averse to reading, however, as Seneca said, "Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed." Please direct me to some sources if you possibly can, or barring that, give me your opinion on when the change took place.

37: 10  there is no automatic duty of gratitude to one's parents....
 that duty should be contingent on many factors and involve  [ideally, if necessary] a large period retrospection [ not rationalisation] with all the
                                                                                                                                                              evidence                  .and on that point of gratitude, the murder of a stranger will not be ameliorated any  by  his [ the stranger's] knowledge  that    the killer has a good relationship with  his  [the killer 's]  father.   new year. 

LOL No4 money example sounds like Donald Trump :)

Excellent presentation

Thank you so much for these videos. They are truly a treasure!

Thank you

Is the word 'dementum' actually used in paradox 4 or anywhere else in the book? I don't have the book but I've been searching for this word online and can't find any history on it so I'm curious. Thanks for all the great videos, super job.

I love this one. It's a wonderful riposte to pop philosophy that assumes that all ideas can be simplified without losing something in the process.

All is not what it seems, Arjuna.

:-)

well-principaled happiness is not based on deciding to be made happy over thing x because there is the least chance of thing x being destroyed, ie you should not say i will not be made happy by material goods because they might become stolen or damaged.. you have to figure out what is good which is not just based on how long it can stay preserved in the state it is in which it being in you find to be good, because i could equally say other irrational things like therefore what is evil must be what does not say the same or last long - but that is a description of orgasm - so everything about pleasure is evil?? the ideal good stays good for all time and can only be in the state that makes it good and must be (exist), and still that is not every attribute of what makes something good or the ideal good..

courage is good? hmmm, if we define courage as being willing to act and acting with the intention to achieve some good whilst risking the possibility of experiencing some bad - well what if the good that you are going to achieve is less good than the bad you risk yourself running into and the bad that might happen is many multiple more times likely to happen than the good - then is courage good, would it be good to be courageous when in some sense you acting in a way that is more likely to bring about a greater bad than a lesser good? and yet you said courage was a virtue, so there can come into play some circumstances as a result of the rewards and risks available that would make having courage a bad thing??

are you secretly penn of penn and teller, the resemblance is uncanny, i keep expecting you to make something disappear... ^^, XD

Thanks for the videos. The most needed philosophy in 21. century.

Hi Greg. I liked very much your comments on #6 Being Rich as a Sage and the value of money and virtue.

I found it practical and easy to understand.

I'm having a great time watching your classes! You have a very nice way to explain things. Thanks!

Many days I can empathize completely with Cicero. My favorite Latin. My favorite quotes. His mind lives on today. I really dig Cicero in every way he is the shit!
Crazy his form of Latin was taught for like 1000 years?

Even though I’ve never attended one of your classes, I am now one of your students. You have a great lecture voice and since you speak with an interest in the material, it is easy and fun to learn from you. We’ll see about the retaining part, but I can’t be held responsible for a flawed hard drive.

Cicero needs to be studied more.

Now I have a reference point for the lack of full community we tend to have to live through as a country Philosophy should be required in high school.