Cicero Good Life

Living a happy life is one of the ultimate goals of human existence. Everything an individual does is in some way related to their struggle to live a life they consider to be good, and while all attempt to live a good and happy life, there is no general consensus as to how that life is to be lived. Arguments pertaining to the good life abounded in Ancient Greece and Rome and have persisted to the present. Roman orator, philosopher, and politician Cicero argued that moral goodness was the only thing necessary for one to live a good life. The good life Cicero presented had little to do with worldly pleasures, in fact, he criticized those who believed that a happy life is a life consisting of pleasure, like the philosopher Epicurus whom he
Cicero’s beliefs directly opposed those of Epicurus meaning that Cicero believed the good life could be lived with minimal pleasures. This belief caused his interlocutor in Discussions at Tusculum to question how that could be. Cicero’s responses to these questions provide important insight to his philosophy regarding the good life.
Cicero believed that moral goodness “is the best thing that there is-that it ranks above everything else” (79). If moral goodness is the best thing that there is, it must lead to the happy life, which is also the morally best thing there is. Cicero’s ideas of moral goodness and the happy life are very interconnected to the point where one cannot exist without the other. One who is morally good can live a happy life even through traditionally unhappy circumstances like poverty and torture because the morally good man is a wise man and a wise man is free from the weights of passions and is entirely “self-controlled, unwavering, fearless, undistressed” (78). A man who possess these traits must be happy simply because there is no reason for him to be unhappy, under any circumstances. It is as if
The meaning of the term “moral goodness” that Cicero used so often when discussing the good life undoubtedly has a different meaning to contemporary readers than it did to those in the time of Cicero. Regardless of the meaning, how one reaches the “good life” Cicero described is not important. Every individual is unique and different and because of that, the good life must vary from person to person. Cicero presents a base for what I believe the good life to be, but that based can be built upon and altered to create a better structure. Not all people will live this good life. Most will not because they will attempt to seek out only pleasure in life and not attempt to move beyond that basic instinct. Most people I have encountered strive only for pleasure and material goods. They believe that pleasure is the ultimate good. Society is partially to blame for this because it has led us to believe that material goods will lead to a happy and fulfilling life. Only a few who completely embrace living a life that is fully appreciated will be able to live the good life. Although living the good life will not make torture any less painful, it will allow for a life that is fulfilling and