Download Boethius, Bk I - Pitzer College

Boethius’s Consolation
of Philosophy, Book I-III
Brian Keeley
Philosophy, Pitzer College
Office: Broad Hall 107
Schedule
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Read Books IV & V for next time
Boethius, the person
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Born: Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius (482-524/5).
Born in Rome to a powerful
aristocratic family; his father had
been a powerful political leader
and had become Consul of the
Roman Senate before his death
when Boethius was only 8 yrs old.
Boethius, the person
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Boethius adopted by
Symmachus, the head of the
most powerful Roman family,
who would also become
Consul.
Symmachus and Boethius
were devoted to one another,
and Boethius goes on to
marry Symmachus’s
daughter.
Boethius, the person
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Boethius was very intelligent,
and said by historians to be
perhaps the most educated
person in Italy for a hundred
years before and after his life. (!)
Boethius, the person
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An avid follower of Plato & the
other classic philosophers of
Greece & Rome, he entered political
life. Following in the footsteps of
his families, he too became Consul,
as did both of his sons.
He also had an influential
intellectual life, authoring a number
of treatises, commentaries, and
translations of the classic works
then available.
Consolation of Philosophy:
The Back-Story
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First, we have to realize that
Boethius’s father’s generation
saw the end of the Roman
Empire, at least the Roman
Empire as ruled by the
Romans. The barbarians had
finally defeated Rome.
Consolation of Philosophy:
The Back-Story
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In Boethius’s time, the Roman
Empire was ruled by the
Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric
(who was put up to the invasion
by the leader of the Eastern
Empire based in Constantinople, now Instanbul).
Theodoric was Emperor, but
was content to let the locals
carry on more or less as before,
but with him as Emperor.
Consolation of Philosophy:
The Back-Story
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By the time Boethius became
Consul, Theodoric’s relationship
with Constantinople had soured.
The next piece of the puzzle is
that not only was the Empire
split, the Church was split as
well. The Pope led a not-verypowerful Roman Catholic
Church. The Patriarch led a
slightly more powerful Eastern
Orthodox Church.
Based where?
Consolation of Philosophy:
The Back-Story
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And, Boethius was a Christian.
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Christianity in Boethius’s day was different:
It wasn't nearly as powerful as it would eventually
become
It was beset by divisions. Not just between the two
Churches, but between groups with very different
religious ideologies. First of all, there were fights over
the appropriate books of the Bible. There were also many
fights over interpretations: There were the Monophysites
who thought that Jesus was purely divine, and not also
human. There were also the Nestorians, who thought that
Jesus was of two different and independent natures, both
divine and human but not simultaneously. Boethius was
on the side of the eventual winners of this debate who
argued that Christ is simultaneously fully divine and fully
human. (The Doctrine of One God in Three Persons)
Back to the Back-Story
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Boethius had been promoted
from Consul to Master of
Offices to Theodoric, which is
sort of like our White House
Chief of Staff.
In other words, if you were
Roman and wanted an
audience with the Emperor,
you had to go through
Boethius.
Back to the Back-Story
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He had been office only a year
when a member of the Senate was
accused of crimes against the
Empire due to his attempts to
negotiate a reconciliation between
the two Churches.
Theodoric believed the charge, but
Boethius did not and said, “If he is
guilty then the whole Senate is
guilty!” Theodoric saw this as a
confession of Boethius’s own
treason.
Back to the Back-Story
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Boethius is then imprisoned on
charges of treason, and the “use
of black arts”.
Theodoric calls a session of a
senatorial court that sentences
Boethius to death (although he is
not allowed to testify in his own
defense).
At this point, Boethius writes his
Consolation… under house
arrest, awaiting execution.
The Consolation of
Philosophy
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Facing all of this, Boethius
still intends to argue that his
philosophical life is the
superior life;
that nonetheless he is better
off than his unjust accusers.
Boethius, His Unique
Historical Position
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Boethius is also a unique character
in that he has feet in two different
worlds and stands at the beginning
of a third.
First, he is immersed in the
classical worlds of Roman & Greek
philosophy. He is a great admirer
of the ancients and their wisdom.
He is, perhaps, the last Ancient
Philosopher.
Boethius, His Unique
Historical Position
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Second, he is a Christian.
However, he is a Christian at a
time before the Church comes
into conflict with the educated
and learned. He sees no
necessary conflict between
the two.
Boethius, His Unique
Historical Position
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And he stands at the
beginning of the “Dark ages”
and the Medieval period.
Rome is about to collapse,
and with it European
civilization.
The Church gains
ascendancy, in part, because
it is the only institution that’s
able to hold itself together
amidst the chaos.
Boethius, His Unique
Historical Position
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So, Boethius is the 1st Medieval
philosopher.
The Consolation not an obviously
Christian text because Christ
appears nowhere in it & he never
quotes the Bible.
Believes faith & reason work
hand-in-hand. This book argues
that the principles of reason &
logic inevitably lead to the
Christian picture of the world.
Boethius, His Unique
Historical Position
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So in many ways, Boethius
stands at the beginning of a
tradition that would only come
to an end with the
Reformation and the birth of
the Protestant Church
(Although, truth be told,
Roman Catholicism still has
strong roots in this tradition,
via St. Thomas Aquinas’s
“Two Paths”).
Finishing the story
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For 1000 years, the most widely copied
work of secular literature in Europe.
Major influence on both Dante (compare
the character of Philosophy here to
Dante's Beatrice) and C.S. Lewis.
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Translated into Old English by King
Alfred,
…into Middle English by Geoffrey
Chaucer
…into Elizabethan English by Queen
Elizabeth herself.
Let’s look at the book itself:
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Its form = a dialogue
between the imprisoned
Boethius and Lady
Philosophy.
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(So once again, the main
character isn’t exactly
what you might think.)
Alternates between poetry
& prose. (This is called a
“Menippean satire.”)
Book I: Setting the Stage
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In the beginning, we find an
ailing, imprisoned Boethius
being tended by the muses of
poetry who are then run off by
Lady Philosophy.
This raises our first question:
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What are we to make of
Philosophy's condemnation of
poetry, when Boethius himself
writes poetry?
Book I
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At this point, Philosophy asks
Boethius what the heck
happened to him, and he spills
out his sad story of injustice at
the hands of corrupt men.
Philosophy is unimpressed by
his self-pity and responds with
the prose passage in Ch. 5.
Diagnosing Boethius’s Illness
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With the questions in the
prose section of Chapter
6, she then diagnoses
Boethius problem:
He has forgotten who he
is.
Bks II & III: Fortune:
It ain’t all that
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Things people usually
look for to find happiness:
Wealth, Positions of
honor and power, Glory
and reputation (Fame),
Health and bodily
pleasures