On Obligations Student Guide

Situations often arise when the useful  seems to conflict with the honourable, so that we must then investigate whether indeed it is in conflict, or whether the two can be reconciled.’

On Obligations (De Officiis) was written by Cicero in the late 44 BC after the assasination of Julius Caesar to provide principles of behaviour for aspiring politicians. It explores the apparent tension between honourable conduct and expediency in public life, and the right and wrong ways of attaining political leadership. The principles of honourable behaviour are based on the Stoic virtues of wisdom, justice, magnanimity, and propriety; in Cicero’s view the intrinsically useful is always identical to the honourable.

Cicero’s famous treatise has played a seminal role in the formation of ethical values in western Christendom. Adopted by the fourth-century Christian humanists, it became transmuted into the moral code of the high Middle Ages. Thereafter, in the Renaissance from the time of Petrarch, and in the Age of Enlightenment that followed, it was given central prominence in discussion of the government of states. 

The Student Guide contains Reading Comprehension questions for the Student. The answers are contained in the Teacher Guide (sold separately).