The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius
Philosophy
The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Happiness -- Early works to 1800
But they think that there is placed under all of these a certain matter
without any form, and destitute of all quality (for we may as well, by
constant use, make this word more usual and notorious), from which all
things are sketched out and made; which can receive everything in its
entirety, and can be changed in every manner and in every part. And also
that it perishes, not so as to become nothing, but so as to be dissolved
with its component parts, which again are able to be cut up and divided,
_ad infinitum_; since there is absolutely nothing in the whole nature of
things which cannot be divided: and those things which are moved, are all
moved at intervals, which intervals again are capable of being infinitely
divided. And, since that power which we have called quality is moved in
this way, and is agitated in every direction, they think also that the
whole of matter is itself entirely changed, and so that those things are
produced which they call qualities, from which the world is made, in
universal nature, cohering together and connected with all its divisions;
and, out of the world, there is no such thing as any portion of matter or
any body.
And they say that the parts of the world are all the things which exist in
it, and which are maintained by sentient nature; in which perfect reason
is placed, which is also everlasting: for that there is nothing more
powerful which can be the cause of its dissolution. And this power they
call the soul of the world, and also its intellect and perfect wisdom. And
they call it God, a providence watching over everything subject to its
dominion, and, above all, over the heavenly bodies; and, next to them,
over those things on earth which concern men: which also they sometimes
call necessity, because nothing can be done in a manner different from
that in which it has been arranged by it in a destined (if I may so say)
and inevitable continuation of eternal order. Sometimes, too, they call it
fortune, because it brings about many unforeseen things, which have never
been expected by us, on account of the obscurity of their causes, and our
ignorance of them.
VIII. The third part of philosophy, which is next in order, being
conversant about reason and discussion, was thus handled by both schools.
They said that, although it originated in the senses, still the power of
judging of the truth was not in the senses. They insisted upon it that
intellect was the judge of things. They thought that the only thing
deserving of belief, because it alone discerned that which was always
simple and uniform, and which perceived its real character. This they call
_idea_, having already received this name from Plato; and we properly
entitle it _species_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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