About a Latin word: how the Romans learned about the notion of humanity (I)

Abstract

«There is nothing like a study of words that allows us to better penetrate the knowledge of ideas. There is nothing from which a greater benefit can be obtained or that presents a similar interest». In that statement there is a very useful method for the history of philosophy, and consequently for philosophy itself. What Gaston Boissier proposes to us in this work divided into two parts is a journey through the history of the idea of Humanity (humanitas). A story linked to the penetration of Hellenism into the victorious Rome of the Republic, and within it, to academic philosophy in the strict sense. The one that is focused here is the one that is modulated through the middle Stoa, with Panaetius at the head and his alliance with the circle of Scipio Aemilianus. A story that receives its mold in Cicero.