Chapter Il lavoro utile e onesto secondo il De officiis di Cicerone

Abstract

The three books of Cicero’s De officiis were written under the influence of the Stoic Panaetius, who explained what kinds of officia or «duties» must be fulfilled by ordinary (= non-wise) human beings. These consists in the respect of justice or honesty and the rational search for common utility, which provides useful goods to individuals. The paper will highlight that this perspective can be applied to work: for working is one of the duties of ordinary humans. Workers should be just or honest, provide useful things, never prefer personal gain over honesty. In order to defend this claim, the paper also takes into account Cicero’s program of the “leisure with dignity” (otium cum dignitate) that he proposes in the speech Pro Sestio and the conception of labor of the Tusculanae disputationes.