Why Cicero Matters

Why Cicero Matters shows us how the Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius, better known as Cicero, can help realise a new political world. His impact on humanitarianism, the Enlightenment, and the Founding Fathers of America is immense. Yet, we give Julius Caesar all our attention. Why? What does this say about modern politics and political culture?

This book presents Cicero as an antidote to the myth of the strong man of history. By reading Cicero’s On Duties alongside two more introspective philosophical texts, On Friendship and On Old Age, we see how Cicero turned politics into a higher, intellectual form of art. He believed in education, in culture, and above all in the power of philosophy to instil morality. Cicero offers reassuring words on the indispensable work philosophers undertake, and why the common good needs philosophy.

In an age when anti-intellectualism runs rampant, Why Cicero Matters introduces us to an ancient thinker who argues that culture is, or ought to be, the foundation of any modern democracy, with books as its building blocks.