 Indeed, Cicero treats this relation as bringing with it a set of distinctly philosophical questions about, for example, the normative weight to be assigned to the deliverances of rational theology as against traditional religious practice (see section 7.3 below), or to the precepts of an abstract ethical theory as against the theory’s liveability in a concrete society (section 7.2 below). His discussions of the leading philosophical theories of his day tend to be used not for the purpose of firm advocacy of one particular set of doctrines or another, but to give his readers the tools to think through positions for themselves. Cicero’s project of disseminating philosophy has the aim of inducing what he saw as the properly philosophical approach, one that is critical and open-minded.