Cicero: On Duties (De Officiis)

"He who holds the highest good to have no connection to virtue, and measures it by his own advantage, not by honorableness…cannot cultivate friendship, justice, or liberality."

In contrast to the Epicureans, who believed that what brought physica pleasure constituted the highest good, Cicero believes that the highest good comes from virtue, or the mind. Virtuous actions adhere to hisprincipals of honorableness. 

"There is also another division of appropriate action: what is called a sort of 'ordinarily' appropriate action and an 'entirely' appropriate one." 

An ordinarily appropriate action can be carried out by anyone who is relatively good, while an entirely appropriate action accounts for both honorableness and usefulness. For Cicero, a person capable of appropriate action conducts themselves according to virtue, which would prohibit them from ever making a disgraceful decision. 

"The beginning allotted by nature to every kind of living being is to protect its own life and body, avoid those things that seem likely to cause harm and seek out and provide for all those things that are necessary for life, such as food and shelter." 

This is the most succinct definition that Cicero gives to what he refers to in the text as 'nature.' By this he means a kind of driving life force that compels all living creatures, including humans, to preserve their own lives.This desire drives all human decision-making. Cicero encourages his son, when making decisions, to weigh whether it will not only be useful in preserving or bettering his own life, but whether it will be honorable, and benefit the greater good.

"This same nature unites one human being to another in an association of language and life by the force of reason…it compels human beings to want to gather together and congregate, as well as participate in such assemblages." 

Cicero does not believe that nature compels solely interests of self preservation. Rather, possession of a conscious mind drives humans to seek out social bonds to one another, and to preserve those bonds. If this were not the case, Cicero could not argue for the importance of honorableness, as, without community or accountability, every human decision could be based solely on usefulness. 

"Everything that is honorable originates from some one of four parts: either in thoroughly recognizing and perceiving the truth; or in safeguarding human association, giving to each his own, and keeping good faith in agreements made; or in the greatness and strength of a loft and unconquerable spirit; or in the order and due measure of all deeds and speech in which are included discretion and temperance." 

Honorableness, which Cicero uses interchangeably with 'virtue,' comes from an effort to fulfill the four goals of human interaction he lists above. They can be distilled to one-word concepts as: wisdom, justice, magnanimity, and moderation. If an action is wise, just, great, and temperate, then it is honorable. Adherence to these virtues is, for Cicero, not only in accordance with nature, but is crucial for preserving human community. 

"But the human mind is nourished by learning and reflecting, it is driven on by a delight in seeing and hearing, and it is always either reexamining or engaged in something." 

Human nature includes not only capacity for reasoning, but an active curiosity. Human relationship to their own minds is what sets them apart from all other animals, and what allows them to even consider whether something is honorable or useful. 

"By nature we…assumed the part of two roles. The first of these is common to us all insofar as we all partake of that reason and excellence in which we surpass the beasts…[t]he second is strictly assigned to individuals." 

Cicero divides human existence into four roles. The two he mentions here are the universal and the individual. This theme, of belonging to a political body and being, simultaneously, a discrete person, recurs throughout the text. Belonging to these two categories creates conflicts of appropriate action, as sometimes what seems expedient to oneself will not prove honorable or useful for the community, and vice versa. 

"In addition to the two roles I spoke of above, a third is to be added, which chance or circumstance imposes, as well as a fourth, which we assume for ourselves according to our own judgment." 

Additionally, humans exist in a set of conditions over which they have no control. They also put themselves into positions of their own choosing, such as pursuit of government office. Both situations further complicate humans' abilities to take appropriate action, as decisions for a future path should attempt to reconcile personal wants with those that would benefit the common good. 

"So it is appropriate to act first on behalf of the immortal gods, second, one's fatherland, third, one's parents, and, next, by degrees."

Cicero acknowledges that no situations exist in black-and-white terms. Rather, honorableness and virtue exist on a spectrum, in that in some situations, one must make a choice as to which action is the more honorable of the two, or more. Likewise, one must consider a hierarchy of entities to which humans are held accountable. 

"But now we are going to proceed to that very thing that is called the useful. Habit has eroded and twisted this word…severing honorableness from utility, it has decreed something to be honorable that is not useful, and useful that is not honorable—a habit that could not bring greater ruin to human life." 

In the second book, Cicero sets out to define appropriate action based on usefulness, or utility. He wishes to make the distinction that, while there can be overlap, not everything deemed honorable is truly useful, and vice versa. According to Cicero, things that are useful can also be disgraceful, in which case they are not honorable. These things, he demonstrates, are typically self-serving and cause harm to others. 

"There is no doubt…that human beings above all benefit and hurt other human beings, I maintain that it is characteristic of virtue to win over the minds of other human beings and harness them for one's own use." 

In discussing usefulness, Cicero often frames it in terms of swaying the opinions of fellow humans. Humans do need the cooperation of other humans to survive. However, in this text, Cicero is a politician, and he addresses his son, who will likely enter public office. Hence, Cicero tends to discuss usefulness in terms of politics. 

"For ultimately fear is a bad guarantor, while, on the contrary, goodwill is trustworthy, nay unfailing." 

While he insists on the efficacy of having people on one's side, especially as a leader, Cicero cautions against the use of fear as a means of control. This warning likely stems from witnessing the proscriptions of Sulla, the seizure of power by the First Triumvirate, and Caesar's consolidation of authority by means of force against his enemies. The year after writing this text, Cicero would be killed by proscription under orders of Octavian Caesar. 

"And so justice accomplishes all three of those things that were proposed for fostering glory: goodwill, since it wishes to benefit as many people as possible; trust, owing to the same cause; and admiration, since it spurns and ignores those things by which most people, inflamed with avidity, are captivated." 

Justice, as a virtue of honorableness, factors into the way in which someone chooses how to win influence over others. Attempts to do so can only be considered both useful and honorable if they appeal to the three precepts outlined above: goodwill, trust, and admiration. If not, the influence will have been won by unvirtuous means.

"True glory takes root and spreads its branches widely; but all deception quickly withers like a flower, and no pretense can last for long."

It is not enough to simply be born into a good standing, like Cicero's son. Because of this, Cicero advises his son not to rest solely on his given name nor social standing. Rather, he, and others, should actively conduct himself in the way that he wishes to be perceived, which Cicero hopes will be moral.He likewise advises this for those born of lower social standingto overcome their situations. 

"To be sure, if possible we must endeavor to do both; if not, we ought to look after the interests of individuals, but in such a way that the endeavor either benefits or at least does not hurt the commonwealth." 

In Book II, Cicero focuses largely on actions that influence others via favors, and displays of magnanimity. Because decisions made regarding interactions with individuals tend to take place in private, there could be temptation to make a decision based on expedience alone. However, Cicero cautions that one should keep the good of the commonwealth in mind if one wants to make an action that is both useful and honorable. 

"We must also endeavor to avoid levying a tax on property, as occurred among our ancestors owing to the scarcity of funds and the constancy of wars." 

Much of Cicero's discussion of magnanimity insists on a kind that does not put one into a position of overextension. He warns against getting oneself into debt by using up or giving away resources that can't be readily renewed or replenished. His anxiety here is based on his experiences with social unrest surrounding the excesses and subsequent decline of the Roman Republic. 

"Panaetius, who proposed three sorts of things that human beings are accustomed to deliberate and ponder concerning appropriate action: first, whether a certain deed is honorable or disgraceful; second, whether it is useful or useless; third, how one ought to decide between things when what appears to be honorable conflicts with what seems to be useful." 

This quote provides a thesis for the entire treatise. Cicero set out to expand upon the ideas explored by Panaetius in a previous treatise concerning moral action. Panaetius did not address how humans deliberate when considering appropriate action, namely the potential conflict between honorableness and usefulness. This is what Cicero sets out to do in Book III.

"What greater crime can there be than to murder, not only another human being, but also one with whom we are intimate? And yet does someone commit a crime if he kills a tyrant, however much an intimate?" 

Cicero refers here to the assassination of Julius Caesar. In this passage, he attempts to reconcile his own feelings about this act. Murder may prove useful to one human in avenging or protecting themselves, but it is seldom a virtuous act. However, if the person killed is disgraceful and inflicts harm on others, could their murder be justified as a service to the community?

"For one human being to take something belonging to another human being, and to enlarge his own advantage to the disadvantage of another, such is more contrary to nature than death, than poverty, than pain." 

An action that benefits one person through ill-gotten gains cannot be considered useful by Cicero. This passage may also refer to fear that  Caesar's non-Republican governance would interfere with private ownership of land. 

"The law of nature itself, which safeguards and preserves what is of utility to human beings, surely decrees that the necessities of life may be transferred from an inept and useless human being to a wise, good, and courageous man…who, were he to die, would take away much from his common utility." 

Cicero acknowledges that utility, like honorableness, exists on a spectrum. Sometimes a moral decision must be made between the more useful of two actions. In Cicero's conception, some humans are more useful to a commonwealth than others, given their innate qualities, and thus should receive preferential treatment. 

"The force of the ring and the example is this: if no one would know, no one would suspect, that you had done something for the sake of wealth, power, dominion, lust, if it would always be unknown to gods and human beings, would you do it?" 

Actions taken in public and private should comply with each other, according to Cicero. The ring he refers to in this passage was used by Gyges in order to become the king of Lydia. He found it inside of a bronze horse, buried underground, and discovered that he could make himself invisible by putting it on his finger and turning it. Under invisibility, he snuck into the palace, violated the queen, and with her, usurped the throne. Simply doing something without witnesses does not make it okay.

"Let it be resolved, then, that what is disgraceful is never useful, not even when you can obtain what you think is useful." 

This quote demonstrates Cicero's subordination of usefulness to that of honorableness. As he states repeatedly in Book III, one must strive to reconcile decisions that benefit the private, individual good with the public, collective good. Under no circumstance can anything be deemed useful that conflicts with Cicero's definition of honorable. 

"We may understand that since nature is the source of what is right, the following is in accordance with nature: no one is to act in such a way as to prey upon the ignorance of another."

Cicero gives many examples to bolster his arguments throughout the book. He includes situations in which information is withheld from potential buyers which would prevent a sale, and other situations involving deceit. To prey upon another's ignorance for personal gains directly conflicts Cicero's version of human nature, in which preservation of community drives action.