Chapter 4, A Practical Code of Behavior, On Duties, III Summary and Analysis

This chapter contains an essay of wide and dramatic influence in the West, impacting thinkers from its publication down through the 19th century. It is a guidebook for how to behave properly in private and in public, and it is addressed to Cicero's son Marcus who was studying in Athens. The third book, which is printed here, covers what to do when what is right and what is to one's advantage conflict. Cicero argues that these clashes are never genuine and then proclaims that morality is supreme to advantage. He then outlines how moral right proceeds in actual practice.

Section I opens with a praise of Scipio and an exhortation to his son to find all of philosophy 'fruitful and rewarding'. He wants his son...