Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.7 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.7
But people raise other objections against me—and that, too, philosophers and scholars—asking whether I think I am quite consistent in my conduct: for although our school maintains that nothing can be known for certain, yet, they urge, I make a habit of presenting my opinions on all sorts of subjects and at this very moment am trying to formulate rules of duty. But I wish that they had a proper understanding of our position. For we Academicians are not men whose minds wander in uncertainty and never know what principles to adopt. For what sort of mental habit, or rather what sort of life would that be which should dispense with all rules for reasoning or even for living? Not so with us; but, as other schools maintain that some things are certain, others uncertain, we, differing with them, say that some things are probable, others improbable.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.7, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.7
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAnswering a charge of inconsistency, the author explains that his sceptical school does not abandon all rules. It holds that nothing is certain beyond doubt, yet some things are more probable than others, and probabilities are enough to guide both thinking and living.
Older wording
- “Academicians”
- — followers of Plato's Academy, who held that certainty is unattainable
- “probable”
- — likely to be true, though not certain
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Learning and progress
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