Author: Hawley, Michael C.
Title: Cicero and the Philosophic Grounds of Liberty
Review/Collection: «Polis» 42, 1
Year edition: 2025
Pages: 29-50
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: The prevailing view of the origin of the idea of republican liberty holds that it emerged as a polemical tool to wield against political opponents in the Roman republic. But viewing republican liberty as partisan rhetorical device has obscured the important philosophical innovations that were necessary to render it theoretically viable and coherent. Turning to Cicero, the earliest extant theorist of republican liberty, I seek to explore the depth of the conceptual revolution that made it possible to articulate that ideal. Cicero transforms the practice of republican libertas into a coherent ideal through a re-thinking of some of the central claims of Greek political philosophy [Author]
Author initials: Hawley 2025
Title: Cicero and the Philosophic Grounds of Liberty
Review/Collection: «Polis» 42, 1
Year edition: 2025
Pages: 29-50
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: The prevailing view of the origin of the idea of republican liberty holds that it emerged as a polemical tool to wield against political opponents in the Roman republic. But viewing republican liberty as partisan rhetorical device has obscured the important philosophical innovations that were necessary to render it theoretically viable and coherent. Turning to Cicero, the earliest extant theorist of republican liberty, I seek to explore the depth of the conceptual revolution that made it possible to articulate that ideal. Cicero transforms the practice of republican libertas into a coherent ideal through a re-thinking of some of the central claims of Greek political philosophy [Author]
Author initials: Hawley 2025
