{"id":2391,"date":"2011-05-05T06:17:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T06:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2018\/12\/08\/1973-revision-v1\/"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:37:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T12:37:58","slug":"the-consolation-of-philosophy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/05\/the-consolation-of-philosophy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consolation of Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Any man who has fallen never stood securely<\/i>\u00a0(I poem 1)<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Whenever I think of the\u00a0variegation<\/a>\u00a0of human lives I think of\u00a0Boethius\u00a0in his cell drafting and commiserating his own misfortune.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/h3>\n

Boethius was born 476CE around the time that the last Western\u00a0Roman<\/i>\u00a0Emperor<\/a>\u00a0was being overthrown. In 493 the leadership changed again as the\u00a0Ostrogoths<\/a>\u00a0took over under\u00a0Theodoric the Great<\/a>, whom Boethius came to serve as Master of\u00a0Offices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his writings Boethius never mentions the fate of his\u00a0heritage<\/a>, although it must have been important to him: both his parents came from families that had included Emperors. Boethius must have been proud of his people’s history, dismayed at their downfall, and all the while dedicated to preserving the remaining vestiges of the\u00a0Roman senate’s<\/a>\u00a0power.<\/p>\n

To some extent, it was his dedication to the Senate that was finally responsible for Boethius’ death. After attempting to protect a Senator from accusations of treason, Boethius was\u00a0charged too<\/a>, and put into prison. He expected the rest of the Senate to speak up in his defence but was thoroughly disappointed.<\/p>\n

While imprisoned Boethius\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0The Consolation of Philosophy<\/i>\u00a0for which he is most famous. He was\u00a0executed<\/a>\u00a0in 525.<\/p>\n

The Consolation of Philosophy in brief:<\/h3>\n

Read by itself,\u00a0The Consolation<\/i>\u00a0harkens back to the\u00a0Neoplatonists<\/a>\u00a0and their\u00a0Stoicism<\/a>\u00a0imbued ethics which taught that happiness should not depend on fortune. The tract is written\u00a0as<\/a>\u00a0a conversation between Boethius and Lady Philosophy who consoles Boethius, first by showing him that he should not feel betrayed by\u00a0Fortune<\/a>, and later by explaining to him that the world is ultimately justified by an infinite and good god.<\/p>\n

Although it contains discussions of god and although Boethius was a Christian,\u00a0The Consolation<\/i>\u00a0at no time mentions any Christian particulars. The book is obviously theistic but echoes the Neoplatonists’ One, which was an\u00a0infinite<\/a>\u00a0but utterly depersonalized being.<\/p>\n

Boethius,\u00a0alone<\/a>\u00a0at night in his cell:<\/h3>\n

We mostly hover through\u00a0life<\/a>\u00a0somewhere in the middle. Even if we catch glimpses of life’s extremes, we normally continue our Brownian motion; pass on to the next status quo.<\/p>\n

That’s the reason, I suspect, why we find the\u00a0Job’s<\/a>\u00a0of history so fascinating (especially those, like Boethius, who are never saved by a\u00a0dues ex machina<\/i>): Boethius started life on the top, collapsed, lost everything; lingering only to be executed.\u00a0Unredeemed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For much of the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0and 19th<\/sup> century, Boethius was read as the Christian who, in a time of true need, turned away from a faith he didn’t truly care about, seeking solace in a\u00a0pagan<\/a>\u00a0past. The image is all the more poignant when it is reminded that Boethius is imprisoned and facing death, and somehow finds peace in a non-denominational, rational, philosophy.<\/p>\n

It’s not clear how much of that story can be retained. Certainly not all of it. It is no longer\u00a0accepted that Boethius’ faith was a merely superficial blind: today it is known that Boethius wrote many important theological works (some of which may have contributed to his political woes). What’s more, it’s not even clear that at the time of writing Boethius was facing death:\u00a0The Consolation<\/i>\u00a0suggests that its author is a man ruined, perhaps with no hope of regaining his former successes. But a man on\u00a0death row<\/a>? Maybe not.<\/p>\n

If so then what remains?<\/p>\n

Lady Philosophy explains what God’s perspective must be: atemporal and utterly depersonalized. It contrasts with the temporal perspective which is quagmired in the shifting\u00a0present<\/a>, unable to go back and change the past its already seen nor glance ahead forward to predict its next steps.<\/p>\n

On the surface, the aim is to explain the relationship between\u00a0prescience<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0possi<\/a>bility<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0free will<\/a>. But I can’t help but\u00a0feel that maybe Boethius means to say something else: that maybe his life feels cursed only when seen in the present, that it is enough to know that god can see Boethius on an\u00a0atemporal stage<\/a>, where perhaps it makes for a happy show.<\/p>\n

But even so, the consolation Boethius is offering himself is a not a whole one. I find it conceivable that Boethius could learn to step outside his own perspective and become witness to the\u00a0unity<\/a>\u00a0of a life. What I find harder to conceive is that Boethius could use the same technique to assuage the\u00a0knowledge<\/a>\u00a0of an upcoming death.<\/p>\n

Fortune<\/a>\u00a0is a turning\u00a0wheel<\/a>, and Boethius tries to assure himself that life is the wheel’s entirety, and not merely its present spoke. The fortunes of life may rise and fall, but life is not a momentary fortune; life is the background against which all fortunes press themselves.<\/p>\n

That is the consolation Boethius offers himself, but it is a consolation for life, not for death. A consolation for death would require that Boethius look outside the wheel. Boethius would need a perspective which lies beyond the passing of a wheel; an atemporal and utterly depersonalized\u00a0perspective<\/a>. I am not sure whether such a perspective is possible, and anyway, suspect that it might be better not pursued.<\/p>\n

\n

…to forsake the common goal of existence is to forsake existence itself\u00a0<\/i>(IV prose 2)<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

References<\/strong>: “The Consolation of Philosophy” edited by Douglas C Langston; Wikipedia.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any man who has fallen never stood securely\u00a0(I poem 1) Whenever I think of the\u00a0variegation\u00a0of human lives I think of\u00a0Boethius\u00a0in his cell drafting and commiserating his own misfortune. Background: Boethius was born 476CE around the time that the last Western\u00a0Roman\u00a0Emperor\u00a0was being overthrown. In 493 the leadership changed again as the\u00a0Ostrogoths\u00a0took over under\u00a0Theodoric the Great, whom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,204,20],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-everything2","category-philosophy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1704,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/10\/14\/anaximander-and-the-beginnings-of-greek-philosophy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":0},"title":"Anaximander and the beginnings of Greek philosophy","author":"Pala","date":"October 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"History\u00a0has recorded Anaximander as one of the first of the\u00a0Ancient Greek\u00a0philosophers, preceded only by his teacher\u00a0Thales. Anaximander lived around 2600 years ago, in the large\u00a0Ionian\u00a0city of\u00a0Miletus, which can be found on the West coast of modern day Turkey. Anaximander is famous, together with his teacher Thales and his own student\u00a0Anaximenes\u00a0for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/12\/05\/some-words-on-descartes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":1},"title":"Some words on Descartes","author":"Pala","date":"December 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Read a biography of Descartes and re-read his Discourse[I] (I\u2019d already read his Methods and excerpts from his scientific slog - optics and harmonics, ergh). So how do I feel about this famous Frenchman, the so-called father of modern philosophy? Philosophy-wise, not that much. His real contribution was to abandon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2719,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/09\/16\/monday-september-16-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":2},"title":"Monday September 16, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"September 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: Although Shai refers to Kant in earlier essays, this is the\u00a0first where he is analysing Kant\u2019s writing and philosophical approach by analysing his \u201cProlegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science\u201d (definitely a mouthful, thus often referred to as Kant\u2019s Prolegomena).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2425,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/02\/06\/philosophy-readings-through-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":3},"title":"Philosophy readings through time","author":"Pala","date":"February 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: In February 2013, Shai adds\u00a0Evernote\u00a0to his suite of repositories. This is an application designed specifically for note-taking, organising, task lists and archiving. This proves to be the ideal tool for him to better control his ever-growing research notes, stored primarily up to this point, in handwritten notebooks and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1710,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/06\/ancient-greek-philosophy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":4},"title":"Ancient Greek Philosophy","author":"Pala","date":"November 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What is\u00a0this?\u00a0It's an index of sorts, linking to\u00a0nodes\u00a0that relate to\u00a0philosophy\u00a0in\u00a0Ancient Greece. See also the first footnote below[1]. It was written for two main reasons: (1) As an index that can be referred to when looking for something to read about Ancient Greek philosophy; (2) as an index that can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2915,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/01\/13\/philosophy-bites-podcast-a-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":2391,"position":5},"title":"Philosophy bites Podcast- A Person","author":"Pala","date":"January 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This is Shai\u2019s first reference to the French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas\u2019 ideas appear to have made an impact on Shai\u2019s outlook as he refers to him 11 more times in the following three and a half years, most notably in a post entitled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-Cz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}