Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Providence, Plants, And Animals - Sadler's Lectures

26/09/2025 14 min
Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Providence, Plants, And Animals - Sadler's Lectures

Listen "Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Providence, Plants, And Animals - 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 many ways in which species of plants ad animals seem well-designed for their determinate activities and functions seem to suggest that there is a providential designer and arranger who ordered them in those ways.

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