12 h 51 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What do you owe others when doing right seems to stand in the way of getting ahead?
Rome is in turmoil after the murder of Julius Caesar. Pushed out of public life, Marcus Tullius Cicero turns to a question that reaches beyond politics: what does a good person owe to others? In On Duties, he addresses his son Marcus, who is studying philosophy in Athens, with advice on living and acting with integrity.
The argument moves through three parts: what is honourable, what is useful, and what to do when they seem to clash. Drawing on the Stoic thinker Panaetius, Roman history and his own career, Cicero tests the choices that shape public and private life. His central claim is demanding: true advantage never conflicts with honour.
What you’ll discover
- A reason for duty Explore Cicero’s view that duty means choosing actions reason can defend as fitting for human beings.
- Four sources of honour Consider what wisdom, justice, courage and self-control ask of you in daily life.
- Justice beyond yourself Examine the duty to avoid harm and serve the common good.
- Kindness with clear limits Think through why generosity needs judgment, rather than the impulse to give without care.
- When advantage looks tempting Follow Cicero’s argument that a wrongful choice can never be truly useful.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who want a practical, old and carefully reasoned guide to ethics in public and private life, especially in work, leadership and politics. If you want modern research or a gentle, personal tone, you may find it formal.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Duty means acting as nature and reason demand
- Honour has four sources, and each asks something
- Justice means harming no one and serving the common good
- Generosity must be wise, not careless
- Courage and self-control give life its shape
- Advantage must serve honour, never compete with it
- Whatever seems useful but is wrong is never truly useful
- Cicero wrote it from defeat, for a son and for Rome
- The book has shaped ethics for two thousand years
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- Large print hardcover
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I doveri
Moral duties guide choices between personal gain and honour.
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Language: Italiano
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
Duty means acting as nature and reason demand
Cicero begins by explaining what he means by officium, the Latin word for duty. A duty is an action that reason can defend as fitting for a human being. He separates a perfect duty, which a wise person performs flawlessly, from an ordinary duty, which decent people can carry out in daily life. His book is aimed at the second kind, since few of us are sages.
He says that every living creature has a drive to protect itself. Humans have more than that. We have reason, and reason lets us see cause and effect, compare things, and plan ahead. It also draws us toward truth and toward other people. So a human life, in his view, is shaped by both self-preservation and fellowship.
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The author
Marcus Tullius Cicero
106 BC–42 BC · Roman statesman, orator and philosopher
Roman statesman, lawyer, orator, and philosopher.
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What is On Duties about?
It is Cicero's guide to right conduct. It asks what is honourable, what is useful, and what to do when they seem to conflict, and it answers that true advantage never requires doing wrong.
Who was On Duties written for?
Cicero wrote it for his son Marcus, who was studying philosophy in Athens. It is a father's advice, though it was meant to reach a wider Roman audience as well.
What does De Officiis mean?
It is the Latin title, usually rendered On Duties or On Obligations. Officium means a fitting action or duty, something that reason shows a person ought to do in a given role.
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