Cicero's Tusculanae disputationes and his project of a Roman philosophy. A cooperative commentary on its fifth book in philosophical, literary and cultural-historical perspective

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According to the conspectus of his works, which Cicero (106-43 BCE) offers in "De divinatione" 2,1–4, the fifth book of his Tusculan Disputations has a special significance: it does not only mark the climax of this writing but it occupies a central place in his project of a genuine Roman philosophy. Nevertheless, it has mostly been neglected in modern scholarship. This project aims at a rediscovery and in-depth analysis of this book, based on the critical evaluation of the existing scholarly literature and on an interdisciplinary approach towards the text (including a German translation, a detailed commentary and especially six comprehensive interpretive essays). The goal is to establish a coherent overall reading of this text which will also be contextualized within the other four books of the Tusculans and will be related with Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum, another ethical writing which was composed shortly before Tusc. and is connected with it on many levels. In this way, we will gain novel insights with regard to the overall purpose of the Tusculan Disputations as well as concerning the structure and intention of Cicero’s philosophical project as a whole. Thus the profile of a genuine Roman philosophy for which Cicero fashions himself as a founding figure will be brought into a much sharper focus than it has been done in recent literature devoted to this topic.