Why does CICERO serve as our role model ?
His work as an eclectic (“selector”) is worth imitating in management consulting & information technology, even in the 21st century. Today, very often it is a matter of analysing the existing precisely according to strengths & building on this to implement evolutionary constructive, practicable solutions. To “invent” something completely new (theoretical super solutions) is often counterproductive, especially in management consulting.
Who was Marcus Tullius Cicero ?
M. Tullius Cicero, unrivaled as an orator/speaker to the present day, ambitious as a statesman but ultimately unsuccessful, achieved considerable things as a philosopher & writer.
Like all Romans, he was hardly creative in this field (in the sense that he invented a new paradigm), but as an eclectic (literally: “selector”) he made a selection of the most important philosophical teachings of the Greeks, explained them with examples from history, nature & the intellectual world and made Latin applicable to philosophical problems.
His importance for the European occidental culture is therefore undisputed today. Philosophers & theologians of later times – namely Ambrose, Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury & Thomas Aquinas – are indebted to Cicero, who also strives for dignified language in his philosophical works, in terms of style & thought.
Not only the creation of a Latin philosophical prose is Cicero’s merit, but also the popularisation of philosophical problems in the Occident. He aroused interest in philosophy through lively exposition, numerous examples, quotations & verses, especially through the concentration of the material on “praecepta ad bene beateque vivendum” (rules for a good & happy life), corresponding to the practical Roman way of thinking.
Cicero’s literary works can be divided into 3 broad areas:
- his speeches (over fifty of which have survived),
- his collections of letters to friends & contemporaries,
- his works on state philosophy, general philosophy & rhetoric.
Among the most important philosophical works are:
- academica (4 books on epistemology),
- de finibus bonorum et malorum (5 books on the doctrine of values on a Stoic basis),
- tusculanae disputationes (5 books on the practical philosophy of life),
- de natura deorum (3 books on theology),
- de officiis (3 books on ethical behaviour),
- de re publica (questions concerning the best form of government & the realisation of human capabilities in society),
- de oratore (rethorics).
