Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶12–14 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
From “On Grief of Mind”
Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶12–14
M. Not to me only, but I apprehend, though I have often been surprised at it, that it appeared so to our ancestors many ages before Socrates, from whom is derived all that philosophy which relates to life and morals. A. How so? M. Because the name madness implies a sickness of the mind and disease; that is to say, an unsoundness and an unhealthiness of mind, which they call madness. But the philosophers call all perturbations of the soul diseases, and their opinion is that no fool is ever free from these, but all that are diseased are unsound, and the minds of all fools are diseased, therefore all fools are mad. For they held that soundness of the mind depends on a certain tranquillity and steadiness; and a mind which was destitute of these qualities they called insane, because soundness was inconsistent with a perturbed mind just as much as with a disordered body.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶12–14, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/3.12
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAncient speakers already treated madness as unsoundness of the mind, and the philosophers extended this: strong emotional disturbances are diseases, so anyone swept along by them is not fully sound, since a healthy mind depends on calm and steadiness. People without that steadiness are, on this view, in effect mad.
Older wording
- “perturbations”
- — disturbances of the mind
Themes and situations
- Emotions and the passions
- Peace of mind
- Judgements and impressions
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