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Rating: 
Summary: A Classic
Review: Cicero is a key figure for his influence on a tremendous number of thinkers after him. Some of the nicer elements of Cicero's view on how to live was his emphasis on self-development with respect to one's particular calling and interests. I continuously got a "be all you can be" vibe from Cicero's writing, which is constantly reassuring despite lacking major substance to the doctrine.
The main themes of the tripartite composition of the work is on the honorable, the beneficial, and apparent conflicts between the two in public and private life. Quick hitter topics of Book One include the supremacy of virtue, anthropological concerns about how we ought to live among one another, justice, greatness, and moderation, among others. Book II is mainly concerns that which is deemed beneficial in human life, including discussion about misplaced labels of the same. Book Three is devoted to arguing that any apparent conflicts between the honorable and the beneficial are only apparently so (fairly similar to how Plato's account of how we can sometimes desire only "apparent" goods rather than actual ones goes). The work itself was written as a "little life manual" by Cicero to his son, so the book as a warm cuddly feel mixed in with some gentle but stern advice from a father to his son, in troubled times.
In all a nice and easy read, if not a tremendously important one (relatively speaking). Drawing again from my notes, evidently Voltaire was a big fan, writing that "No one will every write anything more wise." Whether or not this is an accurate characterization is up to other readers, but it may at least be strong incentive to read Cicero's "On Duties."
Rating:
Summary: "The Martha Stewart of Philosophers"
Review: I lifted this comment straight from my notes on Cicero, so I can't take credit for the clever parallel (that goes to Professor Thomas Williams of the University of Iowa Department of Philosophy). Cicero is a key figure for his influence on a tremendous number of thinkers after him. Some of the nicer elements of Cicero's view on how to live was his emphasis on self-development with respect to one's particular calling and interests. I continuously got a "be all you can be" vibe from Cicero's writing, which is constantly reassuring despite lacking major substance to the doctrine.The main themes of the tripartite composition of the work is on the honorable, the beneficial, and apparent conflicts between the two in public and private life. Quick hitter topics of Book One include the supremacy of virtue, anthropological concerns about how we ought to live among one another, justice, greatness, and moderation, among others. Book II is mainly concerns that which is deemed beneficial in human life, including discussion about misplaced labels of the same. Book Three is devoted to arguing that any apparent conflicts between the honorable and the beneficial are only apparently so (fairly similar to how Plato's account of how we can sometimes desire only "apparent" goods rather than actual ones goes). The work itself was written as a "little life manual" by Cicero to his son, so the book as a warm cuddly feel mixed in with some gentle but stern advice from a father to his son, in troubled times. In all a nice and easy read, if not a tremendously important one (relatively speaking). Drawing again from my notes, evidently Voltaire was a big fan, writing that "No one will every write anything more wise." Whether or not this is an accurate characterization is up to other readers, but it may at least be strong incentive to read Cicero's "On Duties."
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