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Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
c. 477–524· Philosopher· Ethics & how to live
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Roman statesman and scholar who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison while awaiting execution.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: fortune's gifts turn like a wheel, so true happiness lies only in the highest good, God. Boethius was a top official under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy, until accused of treason and jailed near Pavia. In the Consolation, written in alternating prose and verse, Lady Philosophy visits him. Her answer on free will: God sees all time at once, in an eternal present, so foreknowing is not forcing. Main objection: if God timelessly sees what I will choose, can I still choose otherwise?
Why it matters
The Consolation was among the most read books of the Middle Ages, and his translations of Aristotle's logic were Latin Europe's main source for some 600 years.
Legacy and sources
Hundreds of medieval manuscripts survive; King Alfred, Chaucer and Elizabeth I each translated it. Procopius and others record his downfall and execution around 524.
Still debated
Whether he really plotted with the eastern emperor in Constantinople, and why so Christian a man left Christ out of the book, are debated.
Connections (2)
▸Augustine of Hippo influenced Boethius, The Consolation of PhilosophyWell documented
The connection
Boethius drew on Augustine's theology: God as the highest good, evil as a lack of good, and God's eternity as standing outside time. His answer to how divine foreknowledge fits human freedom refines a solution Augustine had sketched.
When and how
Rome and Pavia, Italy, c. 510–524, roughly a century after Augustine's death in 430.
How we know
Boethius' theological treatise On the Trinity names Augustine's writings as its model, and the Consolation's views on evil and eternity parallel his.
Debates and open questions
How much Boethius took from Augustine versus directly from the Neoplatonists they both read is debated.
▸Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy passed Aristotle's logic to Scholasticism and the recovery of AristotleWell documented
The connection
Boethius planned to translate all of Plato and Aristotle into Latin but was executed before finishing. His versions of Aristotle's Categories and On Interpretation, with commentaries, were nearly all Western Europe knew of Aristotle for six centuries. They gave the schools their basic logic, and his discussion of Porphyry's question whether universals really exist launched a defining scholastic debate.
When and how
Rome and Ravenna, about 510–524, under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, who later had him executed; the texts became the core of the 'old logic' (logica vetus).
How we know
Medieval library catalogues and hundreds of manuscripts show his translations and commentaries as standard teaching texts from the 800s onward.
Debates and open questions
Why some of his other Aristotle translations, such as the Prior Analytics, went unused until the 1100s is still studied.