Cicero's political imperative: A reading of 'On Duties

Cicero's Political Imperative examines the philosophical and ideological roots of Cicero's On Duties, and its due place in American political consciousness. In this last respect, this work follows the lead of recent hermeneutical theory: it aims to effect a 'fusion of horizons' (Gadamer) between Cicero's political world and our own---a fusion that will open up 'new directions of thought' for twenty-first-century readers of Cicero's text by garnering its 'surplus of meaning' (Ricoeur).;First I examine the prejudices held against Cicero as a philosopher, and explore what adjustments must be made to our understanding both of Cicero as a philosopher and of philosophy itself, if On Duties is to be properly read. In the end I argue that the unacknowledged strength of Cicero's philosophizing is its basis in real political and moral experience.;Next I trace Cicero's handling of the Stoic notions of 'natural law' and 'a life [lived] according to nature.' I illustrate the manner in which Cicero anticipates modern Natural Law jurisprudence.;Next I argue for the unity of Cicero's ethical-political vision. Three principles dominate that vision: the golden rule (do not deprive another of his property), the transparency rule (do only what you would have all men know), and the protection clause (prevent harm to innocents). These principles serve to separate the morally correct from the merely expedient in economic and political life.;Next I trace Cicero's strictures regarding political life, his construction of a portrait of the ideal republican politician. Cicero proposes a political ethic of self-abnegation and complete moral integrity. Marcus Atilius Regulus represents this ideal politician, deferential to the Roman Senate, dismissive of his own apparent wellbeing, dedicated to the good of the Republic. Regulus embodies very opposite of the self-seeking politicians of Cicero's own day, whose egotism he blames for the woes of the Republic.;Finally I attempt to merge the horizon of ancient political thought with our own. I argue that when viewed through Cicero's ethics of vulnerability, Aristotle's doctrine of natural slavery provides a prism through which we can spy perennial styles of justice, leadership, and personal morality.