Cicero and Divination

Abstract

Before the modern concept of chance could take its place, bringing many interesting philosophical questions with it, the Ancients had to extricate themselves from the idea that all observed phenomena were either the result of need or of will (of gods, demi-gods or various divinities). Cicero played a decisive role in creating a place for the idea of an “unintentional accident”, a primitive form of our modern notion of chance. In doing so he had to fight a degree of religiosity, which led to him disabusing the world, in a striking parallel with the consequences of scientific and technological developments today.