Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.8 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.8
And yet there is still another classification of duties: we distinguish between "mean" duty, so called, and "absolute" duty. Absolute duty we may, I presume, call "right," for the Greeks call it κατόρθωμα, while the ordinary duty they call καθῆκον. And the meaning of those terms they fix thus: whatever is right they define as "absolute" duty, but "mean" duty, they say, is duty for the performance of which an adequate reason may be rendered.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.8, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.8
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesDuties come in two grades: perfect or absolute duty, which is simply what is right, and ordinary or middle duty, which is any action you can give a sound reason for. The Greek terms are garbled in this text.
Older wording
- “mean”
- — ordinary or middle-level, as opposed to perfect
- “absolute”
- — perfectly right, fully virtuous
Themes and situations
- Duty and roles
- Virtue and character
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