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Summary: Boethius and The Consolation
Review: This is a must for any student of philosophy. Boethius is the transition from Roman and Neo-Platonic philosophy into the Medieval Period. I would also recommend this book to those facing doubt in their studies, or college students thinking of quitting. It is a short work, easy to read and great in its comfort. "Be not overcome by your misfortunes, for the gifts of fortune are fleeting and happiness is not to be found in temporal goods. Only by being like God, who is the highest good, can lasting happiness come to man." Lady Philosophy counsels. Although the work is neo-Platonic Aristotle and Porphyry are heavily drawn from - so the advanced reader could consider those volumes too.
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Summary: Providence, Fortune, and Fate.
Review: This is an account of the ability of the human mind to rise above a man's material failures and the external evils that assault him. Boethius (c 480-524 AD), a Roman scholar and philosopher/statesman, has led a life of privilege and influence. He has taken a stand of conscience in support of the integrity of the Roman senate and, in doing so, has taken a stand contrary to the designs of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. He is imprisoned (and eventually executed), presumably for subversion or treason, on the strength of perjured testimony against him.
Boethius laments his adverse 'fortunes' and has a vision in which a majestic woman appears to counsel him. She tells him "it is time for medicine rather than complaint," and that he suffers from "the common illness of deceived minds." Boethius recognizes her -- "I saw that she was Philosophy, my nurse, in whose house I had lived from my youth." The consolations that follow are structured in five books (i.e., chapters).
In Book Two, Lady Philosophy examines the nature of the gifts of Fortune. These gifts of Fortune cannot be "good in themselves; whatever goodness is associated with them is to be found in the personal probity of those who happen to possess them." In Book Three, evil is seen as merely the absence of the Good, as Augustine of Hippo had earlier argued. In Book Four, the question of whether virtue is rewarded and evil is punished is examined. At first look it certainly appears that evil often succeeds. Here Providence is contrasted to Fate. For this reader, books three and four were rather weakly argued and tedious, although I am always reluctant to say this about a classic work such as this. The strengths of The Consolation are books 1, 2, and 5.
Book Five is an excellent consideration of the determinism versus freedom problem. If goodness and evil are pre-assigned by Providence, then God cannot be omnibenevolent; in this view, God has willfully authored and imposed evil. There is no such thing as choice or judgment, no such thing as virtue, and all evil must be traced directly to a perverse divine evil. This is a pill that is almost impossible to swallow. It runs contrary to our ideas about God, it runs contrary to our common experiences for we do in fact exercise judgment, make choices, recognize virtue to be something quite at odds with vice. Goodness cannot be devoid of freedom, the Supreme Good cannot, by definition, deny the freedom of the human will. The problem is satisfactorily disposed by carefully considering the nature of Absolute knowledge and by not confusing it, as a flawed theology often does, with 'foreknowledge', a humanly impoverished idea not sufficient to describe the nature of knowledge for a temporally independent and omniscient Being. While the problematic idea of divine foreknowledge suggests divine predetermination, the idea of Absolute knowledge poses no obstacle for the freedom of the will. The general argument of this chapter is one of Boethius' best.
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Summary: Forgotten who you really are? So has Boethius...
Review: This is the greatest self-help book of all time. It tells the story of Boethius, a prominent Roman who has been thrown in prison. There, he is visited by Lady Philosophy, and begins to become free. It is very moving stuff. If you ever wonder where The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile come from, this is it. The language is very easy to read. And you wouldn't be doing yourself justice - to not read it in one sitting. It is a rollercoaster that you won't want to get off. It is that good.
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Summary: Faith firm in the face of fear!
Review: This was the second most copied book during the Middle Ages, after the Bible. Why? Partly due to its twiggy size, but beyond that, there is something to what Boethius writes. C. S. Lewis forwarded this book to me in the Twenty-seventh Screwtape Letter, in the context of a discussion about evil in the world and God's Omnipotence. Seems like we are still having the same argument a thousand years later. Nihil Novi Sub Sola-there is nothing new under the sun! In this allegory, the half-pagan, half-Christian Boethius discusses with Wisdom personified why he is imprisoned unjustly, and to a broader extent, how an all powerful, all loving God lets evil happen to humans. Tangential to this is a discussion of freedom of the will and God's omniscience. The genius of this book, therefor, is to be able to slim-down the discussion into five smaller parts, and then to say something substantive on the issue. The last phase it to be correct with what you say, and that is the rub! Though I am not part of this religious tradition, I think Boethius came up with a good explanation, but I am not sure if it true or not. The stork explains where babies come from, but it is not correct. But that does not make this book any worse for reading or for enjoyment or food for thought. Besides, you have to admire his effort in tackling this tough issue. Personally, I agree with Ezra Taft Benson who said at some point everyone is backed up to the wall of faith and there we must take our stand. Yes faith can, is, and will be abused by the evil; and no, I don't think faith is crutch-- any more than I believe that doubt is a crutch to the skeptic. But this book is a tale of a struggle of one man's faith in the face of a bludgeoning club. Indeed, prison literature, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham Jail, John the Baptist in Herod's dungeon Joseph Smith's Epistles from Liberty Jail, is some of the most sublime writing ever! You feel Boethius's passionate spirit expand beyond the wall of his cell and fill the whole mediaeval world.
Rating:
Summary: Faith firm in the face of fear!
Review: This was the second most copied book during the Middle Ages, after the Bible. Why? Partly due to its twiggy size, but beyond that, there is something to what Boethius writes. C. S. Lewis forwarded this book to me in the Twenty-seventh Screwtape Letter, in the context of a discussion about evil in the world and God's Omnipotence. Seems like we are still having the same argument a thousand years later. Nihil Novi Sub Sola-there is nothing new under the sun! In this allegory, the half-pagan, half-Christian Boethius discusses with Wisdom personified why he is imprisoned unjustly, and to a broader extent, how an all powerful, all loving God lets evil happen to humans. Tangential to this is a discussion of freedom of the will and God's omniscience. The genius of this book, therefor, is to be able to slim-down the discussion into five smaller parts, and then to say something substantive on the issue. The last phase it to be correct with what you say, and that is the rub! Though I am not part of this religious tradition, I think Boethius came up with a good explanation, but I am not sure if it true or not. The stork explains where babies come from, but it is not correct. But that does not make this book any worse for reading or for enjoyment or food for thought. Besides, you have to admire his effort in tackling this tough issue. Personally, I agree with Ezra Taft Benson who said at some point everyone is backed up to the wall of faith and there we must take our stand. Yes faith can, is, and will be abused by the evil; and no, I don't think faith is crutch-- any more than I believe that doubt is a crutch to the skeptic. But this book is a tale of a struggle of one man's faith in the face of a bludgeoning club. Indeed, prison literature, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham Jail, John the Baptist in Herod's dungeon Joseph Smith's Epistles from Liberty Jail, is some of the most sublime writing ever! You feel Boethius's passionate spirit expand beyond the wall of his cell and fill the whole mediaeval world.
Rating:
Summary: A must for a seeker of truth
Review: This work doesn't raise issues beyond what had been the subject of discourse by Plato and Aristotle. However, as a manual for the student of philosophy, it's bar none. Systematically Boethius scrutinizes the id driven, pleasure-seeking paths to happiness and exposes the flaws inherent in them all. Money creates more anxiety (articulated so eloquently by Bad Boy Entertainment's production of "Mo Money, Mo Problems.") Hedonism similarly leads to dependancy and fear of the loss of the pleasing object. Philosophy, then is the soundness means to indivdual happiness as it is the least dependant upon external sources for its fuel. Self-sufficiency as the key to happiness is of course not a new point, but the means Boethius utilizes to reach this conclusion are straightfoward and the section explaning how self-sufficiency brings us closer to happiness by making us more like God is novel. This book affected me powerfully, as it forced me to examine the sustainablity of my then lifestyle. I have since realized that be it as it may, I'm not a philosopher and can't rely on Boethius' template exclusively.
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Summary: Partial Consolation At Best
Review: What none of the other reviewers have bothered to point out about this slender tome, a minor masterpiece by any account, is its dependence on an entirely Christian frame of reference. If you've ever wondered about the existence of God, of justice, of providence--in short, if you identify yourself in any way as agnostic--this book offers only partial consolation at best. Boethius is best in the first half of the book in which, big revelation, he identifies the quest for personal happiness as the primary occupation of all men. He then skillfully refutes all of the conventional ways men have gone about trying to achieve that happiness: acquisition of wealth, power, status, fame or physical pleasures. This part of the book is of the most relevance to the modern world with all its emphases on shallow, materialistic, and narcissistic enterprises. If you've ever felt out of step with today's media saturated, celebrity-ridden, wealth-fascinated culture, Boethius' exposure of the folly inherent in such occupations satisfies and edifies best. He also points out that the very nature of Fortune is her inconstancy and, as any gambler knows, if one is going to play her game one has to accept the lows along with the highs. Change itself, while not always to our personal advantage, is part of the natural order. Any attempts to subvert that order by seeking to remain on top are foolish. Boethius also emphasizes the transience of life and that death, the great leveller, brings down the mighty and the low to the same level. One hundred years from now, most of what any of us accomplish in our brief stay on the planet will be forgotten. All great solace for those of us given over to occasional bouts of self-doubt and feelings of low self worth--given the standards of success in this culture, such feelings would appear to be normal. However, the rest of the book cannot truly be said to be of any consolation unless one believes in an omnipotent deity who oversees all and rewards the good and punishes the bad (albeit not always in ways one would expect--sometimes suffering is a reward if enlightenment results and success is a punishment if one remains just as benighted as before). This part feels like conventional Christian ideology. If one has ever pointed out to a believer the injustices so abundant in this life only to receive a pat Christian response of "Providence works in ways we cannot understand," one will understand the agnostic's frustration with conventional religious doctrines which basically revert to "don't question, just believe." It's also hard to buy Boethius' contention that all men constantly aspire toward goodness, although some obviously veer from the beaten path into the wilds of crime and vice. And his insistence on the guilt and self-hatred of the wicked also smacks too much of Christian dogma for my taste. Any one who has witnessed the atrocities of war, genocides on a massive scale at Auschwitz or Bosnia and nuclear annihilation at Hiroshima, in this century would find it difficult to defend the traditional Christian line that Boethius obviously espouses. Despite its flaws, Boethius' writing is admirably lucid and even beautiful at times. If a non-Christian approaches this book with the above reservations, some value can still be found.
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