Stoic Week 2015 - Day 3: Cicero's On Duties (De Officiis)

[@Rahvin1230]

Hey Gregory, I'm a seminary student who focuses on studying Karl Barth and reformed theology. I've recently become very interested in Thomas Aquinas as a resource for avoiding some of the perils in Barth's thinking. Because of this, I've had a growing interest in his (Aquinas') reliance on Stoicism and Aristotle and this video was very helpful for that purpose. Thanks for posting this and I hope you are encouraged to continue.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Taylor Lassiter You're welcome. At this point, while I appreciate encouragement, it's not really necessary. You'll find a few videos on Aquinas himself in my channel, if you search around. As for Stoic (and Ciceronian) influence on Christian authors, there much more so on other thinkers like Augustine, Gregory, Cassian, Boethius, and Anselm. Not so much on Aquinas, who is much more Aristotelian

[@Rahvin1230]

Actually I'm reading a book now that makes an interesting case that Aquinas' account of the virtues is in many ways a mediation between Aristotle and Augustinian Stoicism. It's by John R. Bowlin and he largely breaks with most other contemporary readers of Aquinas, except MacIntyre on certain points.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Taylor Lassiter Well, that would be interesting to take a look at. It would be quite a divergence from what MacIntyre himself actually has to say about the matter of Stoicism. It's not really just breaking with contemporary readers of Aquinas (in whom I've little interest -- I just take my Thomas "straight"), but rather with what Thomas himself has to say about Stoicism at various points.

[@Jose-tl6uy]

ive watched many of your videos, im very grateful for them! please continue!

[@GregoryBSadler]

+giuseppe cesati No worries about that. I'll be producing videos for years to come, God willing

[@averroesthecommentator2989]

After Stoic Week can you consider making videos on Islamic philosophers like Averroes, Al-Razi, Avicenna, etc. I've always been interested but there's not really that many videos on youtube about them but I think you'd do great making them.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Sir Isaac Newton Well, I've already got a lot on the docket -- but perhaps eventually down the line

[@kkallebb]

Thanks for presenting and posting this. I am glad to see that Roman philosophers like Cicero and Seneca are being taken seriously again (when I was taking ancient philosophy in the 1970s, there was a marked tendency to minimize them, even to laugh at them -- it was the last gasp of 19th-century Romantic Hellenism). One thing. Sorry, I don't want to be a pedant, but it's driving me crazy. The accent on Panaetius falls on the third to last syllable. Thanks again.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+William S. You're welcome. More stuff on Cicero later this fall. I'll probably continue to pronounce names the same way, though

[@jag831]

Thank you for this. I needed this info for, well, life

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome

[@MrMarktrumble]

I will buy this book after the lecture. I will read it. thank you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Mark Trumble You won't regret it!

[@MrMarktrumble]

I ordered both on duties and on ends. expensive but lasts a lifetime. given my interest in final causes "on ends" seems most fundamental

[@GregoryBSadler]

How did those two works end up being expensive? Even the Loeb editions with the facing Latin and English run about $20-25 apiece.

[@MrMarktrumble]

I am perhaps too cheap. Most of my books I bought over the years used. I worked at a used book store for about 8 years. My idea of a good time was to roam the city of Toronto on my bike, going from used book store to used book store, then to a coffee shop to read them. For example, I saw a few days ago what my Penguin copy of Marcus Aurelia's Meditations cost me $1.50. I bought both as Loeb copies at the price you mentioned. It is easy to be convinced by the arguments as you present them, I would want more detail and more time to think about them.

[@lionsskyblue442]

you have nice hands, thank you for sharing

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@suzsiz]

You're a lifesaver!

[@GregoryBSadler]

I suppose, for someone who needs some discussion of Cicero's On Duties. Can't say that happens all that often!