The self-sufficiency of the good man against the need for friendship.A discussion concerning the importance of friendship for the good man in Cicero.
Cicero wrote in Book Three of On Duties, that the Stoic sage being absolutely good and and perfect was the only one that could be truly happy. For his happiness was based in his virtue and as he had perfect virtue, he had perfect and lasting happiness. Yet the Peripatetics saw that happiness was not a self-sufficient idea and was instead an amalgamation of external goods. Virtue for them was a factor that contributed to happiness, for the Stoics it was essential for happiness. It would appear on inital observation that the life of the Stoic sage was a solitary one, aloof from the rest of humanity. Yet the Stoics maintained that this was the best and happiest form of life, a life lived in accordance with Nature. However, the Peripatetics maintained that nature loves nothing solitary and man is not a solitary animal. In order for him to fullfill his natural end and achieve eudaimonia he would natually be drawn towards the company of others.
Cicero highlights the tension between Stoic idealism and Peripatetic pragmatism in his discussion on happiness. When he essentially he askes in Book Five of the Tusculan Disputations. Is virtue on its own, self-sufficient for happiness? Or is happiness the sum total of external goods when joined together? Friendship was a factor in this discussion, as for Cicero, friendship is closely tied to human nature and is an important source of happiness. Both the Stoics and the Peripatetics would agree that friendship was naturally part of human nature, but both would say it played different roles in relation to the achievement of happiness. Therefore, a discussion on the nature of friendship found in the Cicero’s On Friendship will take place in this thesis and, will see, if in Cicero’s own voice friendship was a natural constituent of happiness and therefore was something that was necessarily part of a life in accordance with nature.