

Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Argument From Divination - Sadler's Lectures
Sep 8, 2025
12:07
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology
Specifically it focuses upon on the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the existence of the gods presented by Balbus, which we can call the argument from divination. The argument essentially consists in claiming that divination, that is consulting the knowledge or will of divine beings, could not work if there were no divine beings. Since divination does work, there must be divine beings.
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