Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - For The Sake Of Rational Beings - Sadler's Lectures

30/09/2025 15 min
Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - For The Sake Of Rational Beings - Sadler's Lectures

Listen "Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - For The Sake Of Rational Beings - Sadler's Lectures"

Episode Synopsis

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, and in particular on his discussion of how the things at the various hierarchically arranged degrees of being exist "for the sake of" (causa in Latin) other things. Plants, which are at the lowest level, are there for both human beings (as cultivated) and for animals, and the otehr non-rational animals exist for the sake of rational beings, which are human beings and the gods.

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