De finibus bonorum et malorum

De finibus bonorum et malorum
	De finibus bonorum et malorum
Author	Cicero
Country	Roman Republic
Language	Classical Latin
Subject	Ethics
Genre	Philosophy, Dialogue
Publication date	45 BCE
Preceded by	Academica

De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil") is a

Tusculanae Quaestiones written shortly afterwards and the Academica

, De finibus bonorum et malorum is one of the most extensive philosophical works of Cicero.

Cicero dedicated the book to Marcus Junius Brutus.

(absence of pain) is regarded as the highest good. In the second book, Cicero criticizes this view, attacking the Epicurean definition of pleasure and arguing that it is inconsistent to hold pleasure as the absence of pain as the final good, since these are not one single good, but rather two distinct goods.

Third and fourth books (Liber Tertius and Liber Quartus)

In the next two books

Latin. The highest and only good of the Stoics is virtue (moral good). In the fourth book, Cicero casts doubt on this dogma

, arguing a supposed natural state (the "cradle argument"), as well as issues regarding the exclusion of other goods entailed by Stoic doctrine.

Fifth book (Liber Quintus)

In the last book Cicero presents in the form of a dialogue between himself and several friends the theory of eudaimonia taught by Antiochus of Ascalon, which treats Aristotelianism as a subgroup of Platonism. This theory includes both virtue and external goods as the highest good. At the end of the book, Cicero criticized logical inconsistencies of this teaching, but more briefly and only addressing details, not broader principles. Cicero then declares that he follows this school of thought, albeit not without reservations, while respecting the valuable aspects of the teachings presented in the previous books.

Legacy

In

placeholder text, is based on De finibus. The placeholder text is taken from parts of the first book's discourse on Epicureanism. Words of the original text have been altered, added, and removed in Lorem ipsum, rendering it nonsensical as Latin

.