The Consolation of Philosophy in Classics and the Western Canon

Sep 25, 2020 Clif Hostetler rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

Boethius was in prison on death-row while writing this book, or at least the 524 AD equivalent of what we today refer to as death-row. As such perhaps it is an appropriate book for persons in quarantine due to COVID-19 to be reading. ;-)

Boethius was writing in Latin, but he was using the reasoning methods of the Ancient Greek philosophers in this work as he explored such questions as "Why does evil exist?" In his case this was a very personal question because he believed himself to be an upstan Boethius was in prison on death-row while writing this book, or at least the 524 AD equivalent of what we today refer to as death-row. As such perhaps it is an appropriate book for persons in quarantine due to COVID-19 to be reading. ;-)

Boethius was writing in Latin, but he was using the reasoning methods of the Ancient Greek philosophers in this work as he explored such questions as "Why does evil exist?" In his case this was a very personal question because he believed himself to be an upstanding person of integrity and was facing execution because of false political charges from individuals for whom he had little respect.

By using what I was taught to be the Socratic method, Boethius in this work carries on a conversation with a female personification of philosophy. She fills the role of a comforter in assuring him that if he trust in the truths of philosophy that he will be able to see his misfortunes as being of little consequence. I actually got the impression that by using the Socratic method he had rationalize the position that evil and misfortune didn't exist. That isn't quite correct, but he does end up feeling sorry for his persecutors because they were not living with a true heart.

Boethius lived at a time in Rome when Christianity was the state religion. Nevertheless with the exception of his reference to God in the singular, his writing sounds more like a Greek philosopher than a Christian theologian. He spends a long time exploring the question of predestination trying to rationalize how humans can have freewill and still have a God who knows the future. I have little interest in this question, and I can't help feeling impatient when thinkers go through circles dealing with it.

The following are some links I found of interest.

This first link is to a modern day English rendition of Chaucer's translation from the Latin. What I found helpful with this was the two dimensional grid at the beginning which summarized the subjects of the various chapters and sections of the book.
https://parabola.org/wp-content/uploa...

This second link is to a very good essay on Boethius, and the section on The Consolation is well done.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/w... ...more

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May 28, 2011 Everyman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Consolation of Philosophy was arguably the second most important text in Western Thought, after the Bible, for more than a thousand years. It was widely read and studied, translated (from the original Latin) by a broad range of people including King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth I, and Geoffrey Chaucer. In a day before printing, when books had to be hand-copied, a copy could be found in almost every serious reader's library.

Boethius was central figure in 6th Century Rome. In addition to holding h The Consolation of Philosophy was arguably the second most important text in Western Thought, after the Bible, for more than a thousand years. It was widely read and studied, translated (from the original Latin) by a broad range of people including King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth I, and Geoffrey Chaucer. In a day before printing, when books had to be hand-copied, a copy could be found in almost every serious reader's library.

Boethius was central figure in 6th Century Rome. In addition to holding high public office, he sought to keep the learning of Classical Greece alive in Rome, translating and adding commentaries on Aristotle, Plato, and other important Greek authors. However, he was eventually suspected of treason and sentenced to death. (Most scholars believe that he was not guilty but was suspected from a surfeit of paranoia by Theodoric the Great.) It was while he was in prison awaiting his execution that he wrote the Consolation.

It is a discussion, in alternating prose and verse passages, between Boethius and Lady Philosophy. It starts with Boethius bemoaning his fate, how cruelly life has treated him. It deals with issues of predestination, free will, why the evil prosper and the good are punished, and how it is possible to achieve happiness in an unjust world. Lady Philosophy gradually leads him along the path to understanding that the things that men consider sources of happiness -- wealth, power, influence, and the like -- are transitory, that Fortune is fickle and turns men on a wheel on which they alternate between good and bad fortune, and that true happiness can only come from abandoning reliance on Fortune and understanding and embracing the Good.

While it is not overtly a religious work, it contains aspects of Christian and Platonic belief, among others. It is neither Christian nor pagan.

The Consolation has fallen out of wide favor over the past 200 years or so, but its influence remains very strong within Medieval and Renaissance thinking; authors including Milton, Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, and many others up to and including Herman Melville were greatly influenced by it. It is not an easy book for more secular modern readers to embrace, but it is well worth reading for the scope of its vision, its honest wrestling with issues that are still unanswered today, and an understanding of its influence on and appearance in the works of subsequent authors. ...more

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May 21, 2011 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: western-canon, philosophy

Boethius uses one of Plato's most counter-intuitive feats of reason as the cornerstone of his Consolation: that evil does not exist. As he sits in his cell, awaiting an imminent execution, Boethius attempts to convince himself (via an angelic interlocutor named Philosophy) that the injustice he faces will do his persecutor more harm than it will do him, and that his unjust murder is providential. In the Big Picture, which is beyond human comprehension, his torture and demise is all for the best, ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Philosophy comes to Boethius personified as a woman reprimanding him for his despair. Though reminiscent of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, the stoicism espoused is ultimately rooted in a faith that life is not subject to chance and a God that ”watches over His creation.” pg. 50.

Though concise and compelling, The Consolation of Philosophy is merely a shadow of the Greek philosophic tradition from which it is inspired. The imitation of Platonic dialogues is simply that. An imitation. Boethius sta ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Ken rated it liked it

Started out as 5 stars, with interesting and enlightened philosophical insights on happiness and other topics, drawing on the classical writers. In the middle of Book 3 (of 5) it quickly degraded into religious dogma and flawed reasoning, which the author clearly recognized as well, since he repeatedly went out of his way to praise the perfect reasoning. According to descriptions of the book, this was one of the most widely read books during the middle ages, and an inspirition for the Scholastic ...more

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May 30, 2011 Audrey rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, philosophy-theology-allegory, western-canon-group

At first, I really enjoyed this work. By the end, I got frustrated with the many logical holes that were obvious in an argument supposedly based entirely on logic. He based argument after argument on the idea that humans can't possibly comprehend God's reasoning, because human reasoning is fundamentally unlike divine reasoning. He then proceeded to smash all respect I had for him as a logician by basing another argument on an analogy between human and divine knowledge. If human knowledge is noth ...more

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