Political Philosophy by Fr. Schall: 8. Cicero Part 1

This course was recorded in 2015 in an informal setting by Fr. Schall himself.

We next treat the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero. We want to know the difference and relation of the Greeks and Romans. We first take Cicero's speech "Against Verres" and his famous essay "On Old Age." The first is the classical attack on tyranny and the second shows both the nature of old age and how it fits into the polity.

"[The speech and essay of Cicero] show the eloquence so to speak, the power of speech, the power of rhetoric, that Cicero has. And that power of rhetoric is something that we ourselves can still be affected by."

 

For over 35 years, Fr. James Schall taught Political Philosophy at Georgetown University, where he was legendary among generations of students.  If you want an experience of what those students enjoyed, this course is the place to begin.  Fr. Schall starts with Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics and then, with wisdom and wit, guides his listeners through the thought of the great Roman statesman Cicero, the French Catholic philosopher Yves Simon, the Old and New Testaments, the political thought of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas on Law, Machiavelli, politics in the plays of Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and finally, Plato’s masterwork, the Republic.  It is a historical and intellectual tour de force in 60 lectures.  What generations of students had to pay thousands of dollars in tuition to hear, you can now have in recorded lectures to listen to over and over again.  In preserving the lectures of Fr. Schall, we at the Catholic International University feel that we are fulfilling the mission set by our founder Ralph McInerny:  to make the best Catholic lectures available as widely as possible to the public. Please don’t miss this opportunity to engage in one of the greatest intellectual journeys you’ll ever take with one of this generation’s wisest guides.

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