What is the highest good? Five books examining the ethical theories of Epicureans, Stoics, and the Old Academy. The most systematic philosophical work Cicero produced.
Start ReadingTorquatus presents the Epicurean theory of the good: pleasure is the highest end. Pain is the greatest evil. All virtue is instrumental.
Cicero refutes Epicureanism. Pleasure cannot be the foundation of ethics — it cannot account for courage, justice, or friendship at their highest.
Cato presents the Stoic theory: virtue is the only good. Everything else — health, wealth, even life itself — is 'preferred' but not truly good.
Cicero criticises the Stoic position. The distinction between 'goods' and 'preferred indifferents' is a verbal trick. The Stoics agree with everyone else in practice.
Piso presents the Antiochean/Academic position: the end is to live according to nature in its fullest sense, including both virtue and bodily goods. Cicero's own preferred view.