Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman jack-of-all-trades type-a dude. He was a lawyer, a politician, and as we will discover today, a philosopher. However, unlike other prominent Stoic philosophers, Cicero preferred politics over the practice of Philosophy. What a loser.
One of Cicero's writings the Paradoxa Stoicorum, is a work consisting of 6 different Stoic paradoxes that Cicero makes sense out of to prove that they are valid. Today we tackle Paradox No. 5: That the wise man alone is free, and that every fool is a slave.
"How or over what free man will he exercise control who can not command his own passions? Let him in the first place bridle his lusts, let him despise pleasures, let him subdue anger, let him get the better of avarice, let him expunge the other stains on his character, and then when he himself is no longer in subjection to disgrace and degradation, the most savage tyrants, let him then, I say, being to command others. But while he is SUBSERVIENT to these, not only is he not to be regarded as a general, but he is by no means to be considered as even a free man. "
+
"But you say, I have had the direction of important wars, I have presided over great empires and provinces!" THEN CARRY ABOUT YOU A SOUL WORTHY OF PRAISE."
For more, follow the page on instagram @socratesandlaotzuprollyh8us and my own account @JoeyVictorino if you want to discuss the content of the podcast and if there are any things you want to criticize or point out. I'm definitely still susceptible to mistakes and they'd be highly appreciated in the ~pursuit of truth~ or sum shit!