Commentary on “The Stoic Conception of Mental Disorder”

Author: Mordini, Emilio
Title: Commentary on “The Stoic Conception of Mental Disorder”
Review/Collection: Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology - Volume 4, Number 4
Year edition: 1997
Pages: 297-301
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy
Description: [Abstract] Cicero was not a philosopher, but a lawyer and a politician. He became a "professional philosopher" only when he was marginalized from the political arena (Rawson 1983). Caesar's dictatorship had suppressed the democratic debate, and also the lively and burning political life that moved the Senate and Roman citizens for decades. Political rhetoric, the major political art during democracy, faded too. Cicero, who was a champion of rhetoric and fiercely opposed Caesar, was obliged to retire to private life (be reminded that, after Caesar's death, Cicero paid with his life in his attempt to return to politics). In his forced retirement, philosophy became the only way to pursue the renewal of the res publica. Cicero was, paradoxically, a man of the past (because he was a republican and defended Roman institutions) and an innovator, because he felt the necessity to open Rome to other cultures like that of the Greeks (Rawson 1985). When Caesar took power, it seemed that Cicero's moderate position was defeated. It was in this period that he wrote the Tuscolanae. Cicero had already written several books on philosophy before the...
Author initials: Mordini 1997