Rethinking Cicero as Political Philosopher

If you would like to register, please contact Dr Elena Irrera (e-mail: [email protected]) by 21st May

"Being mostly acclaimed throughout the centuries as the champion of Roman oratory and innovator of rhetoric, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) did not achieve an equally well-established and wide-ranging reputation as a philosophical thinker, especially with regard to the sphere of political thought. This conference aims to shed a new light on Cicero as political thinker and to foster an appreciation of his thought by bringing into focus some of its main theoretical underpinnings. With a view to this goal, the conference will address a variety of issues, including Cicero’s conception of the relationship between contemplative and political life, possible aspects of analogy with Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, his view on the nature of constitutions, justice, virtuous statesmanship and citizenship, his theory of natural right and modern and contemporary reception of De Republica, De Legibus and De Officiis."

Bologna University with the collaboration and support of the SIAC. 

Francisco Lisi (Instituto Lucio Anneo Seneca. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), La noción de ley natural en Cicerón. 
Silvia Gastaldi (Università di Pavia), Vita politica, vita filosofica e vita mista nei proemi del “De re publica” di Cicerone. 
François Prost (Université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Un dittico esemplare nel primo pensiero politico di Cicerone: Il comandante militare nella De imperio Cn. Pompei (66 a.C.) e il governatore provinciale nella prima lettera al fratello Quinto (59 a.C.). 
Jean-Louis Labarrière (Chargé de Recherches au CNRS. Centre Léon Robin. Université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Cicéron philosophe et politique: autour du thème de la vie mixte. 
Aleš Havlicek (J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí n. Labem), Philosophie und Politik bei Cicero. 
Eckart E. Schütrumpf (University of Colorado at Boulder), On the Merits of a Practical Life in Cicero De Re republica. Cicero’s View Compared with Those of Plato and Aristotle. 
David Fott (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Skepticism about Natural Right in Cicero’s De Re Publica. 
Lex Paulson (Université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Conservative or Radical? The Constitutional Innovations of Cicero’s De Legibus. 
Fausto Pagnotta (Università di Parma), Cicerone nell’opera e nel pensiero politico di Machiavelli. 
Elena Irrera (Università di Bologna), Cicero on Different Kinds of Respect for Persons. A ‘Darwallian’ Approach. 
Elena Tosi (Università di Pavia), Americanus sum nec quidquam Americani a me alienum esse puto. I classici latini e la nuova identità statunitense in John Adams. 
Fabio Martelli, Eleonora Tossani (Università di Bologna), La Retorica del tradimento. Pensiero e téchne ciceroniano nell’orazione di Saint-Juste il 13 Novembre 1792. 
Ada Neschke Hentschke (Université de Lausanne), Consensus iuris et la “souveraineté du peuple” au début du 17 e siècle. Le parrainage de Cicéron d’un concept-clé de l’Etat moderne. 
Franck Colotte (Université du Luxembourg), Le De Officiis: un manuel de vertu pratique? 
Arianna Fermani (Università di Macerata), Tra vita contemplativa e vita attiva: il De Officiis di Cicerone e le sue radici aristoteliche. 
Diony Gonzales (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), La legge naturale nel De Legibus. 
Anna Iacoboni (Université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Il significato politico del mos maiorum in Cicerone. 
Walter Englert (Reed College, Portland), Epicurean Philosophy in Cicero’s De Republica: Serious Threat or Convenient Foil?