Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Fato [On Fate]

Magnus Schallenberg (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Jula Wildberger, American University of Paris
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Domains

Philosophy (any)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. Jan 1970 - c. Jan 1970

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

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De fato

(“On Fate”) Cicero is concerned with the compatibility of freedom and determinism. This topic had been widely and vehemently discussed during the Hellenistic period – and continues to be discussed with equal vehemence today. The positions taken in current debates have, in their essence, already been touched upon in Cicero’s work, which summarizes and engages with the theories of the Stoics Chrysippus (3rd cent. BCE) and Posidonius (1st cent. BCE), the dialectician Diodorus Cronus (Megarian school, 3rd cent. BCE), Epicurus (atomism, c. 341–271 BCE) and the sceptic Carneades (New Academy, 2nd cent. BCE).

The central problem of De fato can be outlined as follows: if fate were a reality and everything had been fated before it happens, as some physicists and logicians try

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2714 words

Citation: Schallenberg, Magnus. "De Fato". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 December 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32021, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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