Video Lecture Sequence - Cicero's On Duties, Book 1

Last week, I finished creating a sequence of core concept videos focused specifically on topics within Marcus Tullius Cicero's work of Stoic ethics, On Duties.  I began shooting these last semester for my students enrolled in the two Ethics classes I was teaching for Marquette University. 

I typically include some Stoic ethics in my courses, and this time around I decided instead of having them read selections from Epictetus' Discourses, I would introduce them to Cicero instead.  On Duties provides a more systematic framework, which gives them a brief look at natural law theory as well as Stoic virtue ethics.

Hopefully these will be of use to others who would like to study a classic work of Stoic ethics.  Cicero himself was not a Stoic, but he drew heavily upon Stoic philosophy, and this book is a reworking and addition to an earlier work by Panaetius, the sixth leader of the Stoic school.

Here are the 22 videos, associated into sections by content, starting with the introductory material.  hopefully they will help viewers better understand the key ideas as they work their way through Cicero's On Duties.

• General Issues Concerning Duty
• Nature and Reason
• The Four Sources of the Right 

Each of the sources of the right, or of duty in general - as well as of specific duties - is one of the cardinal virtues

• Wisdom as the First Source of Duty 
• Justice as the Second Source of Duty
• Courage as the Third Source of Duty
• Temperance as the Fourth Source of Duty

The virtue Cicero discusses in most detail is justice - and here are lectures going into particular issues concerning that virtue and its duties:

• Committing Justice Though Inaction 
• Whether All Promises Should Be Kept
• Just Limits On Revenge And Punishment
• Justice Towards Enemies In War

Benevolence or kindness is an important part of justice for the Stoics.

• Beneficence and Justice 
• Guidelines for Benevolence
• Beneficence and Degrees of Relationship 

Courage and its implications for ethics also gets examined in a bit more detail

• Courage, Fear and Other Emotions
• Courage, Private Life, and Public Life 
• Faction, Elections, and Social Breakdown

Cicero also discusses key aspects of the fourth virtue, temperance or self-control

• Temperance in Behavior 
• Temperance in Speech and Conversation
• Temperance in House Building and Furnishing

We finish with wrap-up videos, on two important topics:

• The Four Characters 
• Whether Justice Has Priority Over Other Virtues

If you find these free video lectures helpful, please feel free to share them with anyone else you think might benefit from them. 

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