<span class='italic'>The Aims and Argument of the</span> Tusculan Disputations

doi:10.1017/9781009586047.003

Chapter 2 - The Aims and Argument of the Tusculan Disputations

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2025

Rachel Barney

Edited by

Charles Brittain and

James Warren

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Charles Brittain: Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
James Warren: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

The Tusculan Disputations can be read as a complex of four projects: (1) a set of formal exercises in the schola genre; (2) a therapeutic operation directed against the emotions, and fear in particular, with an agonistic relation to Epicurean predecessors; (3) a project of edification, aiming to reinforce the reader’s commitment to virtue; and (4) an exhibition or advertisement of the powers of philosophy and its advantages to Rome. Together, these dimensions of the Tusculans explain the peculiarities of its argumentation and literary approach. It is plausibly the aspiration to advertise philosophy to Rome (4) which is most fundamental: therapy (2) and edification (3) are projects in which philosophy can usefully display its powers, and the schola form (1) is convenient for doing so. These projects are to be distinguished from that of philosophical inquiry; the Tusculans is informed more by Cicero’s patriotic pragmatism than by his scepticism.

Keywords

Cicero Tusculan Disputations disputatio schola edification therapy Roman philosophy Rorty scepticism

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Type: Chapter
Information: Cicero's Tusculan Disputations , pp. 12 - 34

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009586047.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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