“Moralists Are the Historians of Their Age”. Christian Garve as Interpreter of Cicero and Critic of Stoicism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-2426/29953Keywords:
Enlightenment, Popularphilosophie, Christian Garve, Cicero, StoicismAbstract
In 1783, Christian Garve published a translation of Cicero’s De officiis with a three-volume commentary. The philosopher’s aim was not to guide the specialized reader through a philologically documented analysis of the text, but rather to test some of its key categories in light of their relevance for contemporary life. While in the De officiis moral duties are defined in terms of political engagement, the marked pragmatism that characterizes Garve’s speculative outlook – typical of Popularphilosophie – leads him to extend this perspective to private life. His reference to Stoicism is reworked and differentiated through the eighteenth-century idea of ‘perfectibility’, which in Garve’s case has a distinctly religious foundation. Above all it is understood through a reflection on the historical distance that separates the interpreter from the object of his interpretation.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Maurizio Pirro
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2026-05-16
Published 2026-07-21
