Cicero’s Skepticism and His Recovery of Political Philosophy

Walter Nicgorski is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, USA.  He is editor of and contributor to Cicero’s Practical Philosophy (2012), co-editor and contributor to Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker (1994) and An Almost Chosen People: The Moral Aspirations of Americans (1977).   Key topics of his published essays are Cicero, liberal and character education, American political foundations, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom, and Yves Simon.

“Nicgorski’s book is remarkable, engaging the most difficult features of Cicero’s thought and yielding a loving and careful portrait of its unity. … it is no exaggeration to say that Nicgorski, as both teacher and scholar, has played a key role in the resurgence of interest in Cicero’s thought.” (Daniel J. Kapust, Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 17 (03), August, 2018)“Nicgorski has doubtless done something both impressive and praiseworthy in this mature, balanced, and heartfelt book: without recourse to the tired trope of ‘Cicero’s changing views’ (49-50n57), and with admirable interpretive eclecticism combined with wide-ranging erudition … .” (William H.F. Altman, Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 38 (01), 2018)​“Nicgorski makes a convincing case that Cicero does not rank the theoretical way of life over the practical way of life. … For Nicgorski to establish that conclusion in such rich detail—covering the entirety of Cicero’s philosophy, not falling victim to historicism or relativism, not devoting unnecessary effort to tracing Cicero’s sources, displaying an encyclopedic command of secondary material—is a great achievement.” (David Fott, Interpretation – A Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 43 (3), 2017)

• Chapter 1 Skepticism, Politics and a Philosophical Foundation .- Chapter 2 The Critical and Rhetorical Modes of Philosophy .- Chapter 3 Duties and Virtue .- Chapter 4 Political Philosophy and the Roman Republic .- Chapter 5 The Socratic Statesman .- Epilogue .- References .- Index of Citations of Cicero.