 Like Williams, then, Cicero engages deeply with his philosophical predecessors not principally as a historical exercise but as a creative way of doing, and communicating, philosophy. Like Williams, he is concerned to explore the scope and limits of philosophical theory, especially ethical theory, in relation to the character of lived human experience. Both thinkers take the view that theory tends to fall short in accounting for how one should live in practical contexts and for the place of integrity in an agent’s life. Each combines a belief in the power of philosophy to illuminate with a marked scepticism about some of the claims that philosophy makes for itself. Not unconnectedly, the two thinkers show great care in the way they write philosophy; both evince a distaste for technicality for its own sake.