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Title: The Consolation of Philosophy, Books I - III
Author: Ancius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Summary of Work:
Boethius stands at the crossroads of the Classical and Medieval worlds. Boethius, a Roman Christian,
was a minister to Theodoric, the Arian Ostrogoth who became emperor of the Western Empire in AD
493. He got caught up in court intrigue and was arrested, condemned, and sent into exile to await
execution. Whether he was innocent or not is unknown. He was tortured and bludgeoned to death at
Pavia in 524 or 525. In this text, he attempts a feat different than a formal philosophical treatise. In the
confines of prison he was no longer concerend with the minute details and technicalities of argument,
but with the consolation to be gained from a broad and general philosophical meditation.
The Medieval scholars venerated the Consolation. It restores a Platonic tradition, or even
something older and simpler in Greek philosophy, at a time when simplicity and clearness of thought
were about to be overwhelmed in the various divisions and distinctions of the scholastic schools. In the
Consolation, Boethius finds a place of outlook from which the less valuable matters sink back into their
proper place, and the real outlines of the world are brought into view. He thus helped the Scholastics
retain a general comprehensive view of the world as a whole, in spite of the distractions of their minute
inquiries.
Main Themes:

As with most prison-literature, the Consolation often takes the form of a theodicy. Boethius's bitter
experiences lead him into a reconsideration of the nature of happiness. He can't reconcile his own
misfortune and the apparent thriving of the wicked with his intellectual certainty that God's
providence oversees all events and people. He uses the Platonic dialectic as his method, though he
draws the substance of the argument from Augustine, the Stoics, and Aristotle. The way to escape
his sufferings involves self-sufficiency (Aristotle) and a kind of resolute acceptance of Fate
(Stoicism).

The scheme, then, is Platonic. Philosophy descends to Boethius from on high and leads him back
through various paths to God. The turning of the gaze from what is false to what is true and the
realization that God is the supreme good is based on the ascent of the soul in the allegory of the
Cave from the Republic. The ascent is not simply a process of education, though, but also one of
remembering, of anamenesis or recollection. This is a Neoplatonic fushion of concepts not formally
associated by Plato: the ascent of the soul is connected with the doctrine of recollection, and both
are seen in terms of the turning in upon itself of the soul and its illumination by its own inward
light.

The poems often celebrate in verse God's benevolent government of the universe, for the question
of the presence of evil in the world has its solution in the vision of divine peace. These poems, with
their emphasis on peace and love, mark a turn away from purely philosophical writing to the kidn
of expression akin to the Christian authors like Pseudo-Dionysius and Augustine. They lay the
seeds of thought for Dante and Chaucer.
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Outline of Books
Book I


Prose I: Opens with the image of the condemned philosopher—obvious allusion to Socrates in the
Apology. Lady Philosophy appears and chases away the muses of poetry. We might ask why.
Socrates states in the Apology that philosophy is a preparation for death, that we must sing songs to
comfort our souls. Poetry can do this. But Plato banishes poets from the Republic, we can recall.
The implication is that philosophy can sing a more honest, penetrating tune than poetry, which
offers only opiates. Philosophy offers a harsher medicine than poetry's, in certain respects, but one
that will lead to deeper healing in the long run. Throughout the text, Philosophy characterizes her
help as a medicine, with each argument leading to a higher one, a stronger dose. She must start in
lesser doses to prepare the patient for the higher ones.
Prose 2: Philosophy tells him not to lament, that he is suffering from amnesia, having forgotten who
he is. She says he will remember once he recognizes her. She decides to start off with a gentle
medicine to “wipe the blinding cloud of worldly concerns from his eyes.”

Prose 3: Philosophy dubs Plato the best philosopher, the Stoics and Epicureans as inauthentic. This
is ironic given that she will use Stoic arguments and Aristotelian philosophy in her attempts to
educate Boethius.

Prose 4: Boethius offers a long meditation on the reality of wickedness, injustice, and evil. He
states that only wise men should ever rule. He sees only what Job sees: The wicked are happy and
prosper, the innocent suffer and are destroyed. He admits that God does rule nature in an orderly
fashion. But he doesn't see any orderliness to human lives and actions.
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Poem 5: Boethius praises God's government of the universe, but asks why it is withheld from
human affairs and why men are subject to the whims of Fortune.

Prose 6: Philosophy tells him that the source of his suffering is his own mind, which has not made
room for her yet. She assures him that God's providence and order is in control of history and the
world. She questions and chides him for forgetting the end of all created things (teleology) and who
he himself is (his ontology). Because he believes in God, Philosophy reminds him, he can't really
think that reality is subject to mere chance and randomness. Philosophy promises to remind him of
how Providence rules even those things.
Book II
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Prose I: Philosophy states that she will use the “sweet persuasion of rhetoric” and the “grace of
Music” to ease his soul. She warns him of the fickleness of Fortune—change is its nature. She
advises a certain kind of Stoicism: Accept what we cannot control or change. The more we resist,
the more impatient we are, the more painful it is.

Prose II: Philosophy argues on behalf of Fortune, and the argument approximates that of God's in
the Book of Job: “Be grateful, for all is gift.” She reminds him that things can get better—have
hope. Finally, she observes that people will never stop complaining, no matter how good they have
it or what God has given them. People have insatiable desires.
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
Prose III: Boethius admits that this is a powerful argument told in a sweet manner (aesthetic
element). But he says it persuades him “only while being spoken.” Once the music ends, his sorrow
returns. Philosophy tells him that the music isn't designed to cure his illness, but only chase away
the pain of his “obstinate sorrow,” which will prepare him for a more penetrating medicine later.
She also reminds him that, on balance, he's had more joy than sorrow in his life. Finally, she states
that all things change and pass—why should man's fortunes be any different?

Prose IV: Boethius replies that the worst sorrow is precisely the memory of past joy now absent.
Philosophy says that he should never have believed he was secure—that this misjudgment of his
previous situation is haunting him now. Plus, she reminds him of all the good things he still has in
his life and that no one is totally happy. “Nothing is miserable unless you think it so,” she says.
Finally, she states that Boethius shouldn't look for happiness in external things anyway—he must
look for it within himself. True happiness is not found in the things of chance and change, but in
what can be controlled, and the only thing we can control is our own self. Fortune cannot take our
self away from us; therefore we should look for happiness within our soul (self-sufficiency).
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Prose 5: Philosphy offers an anthropology here, with Platonic and Biblical themes. She notes that
other creatures are content in themselves, but not man. This is bizarre, because man is made in
God's image. Boethius has forgotten this fact, forgotten his innate beauty. Thus he feels unloved,
un-blessed. This sense of being unloved is what drives him to seek happiness in external things.
This is what makes him consume lesser goods that are beautiful, but not as beautiful as his own
bare, creaturely existence. The more he does so, the more he covers the image and forgets it, and
thus the more unloved he feels, the more he consumes, etc., etc., etc. in a vicious circle. (St.
Bernard of Clairvaux adopts this exact anthropology in his theology).

Prose 6: Philosophy demonstrates that worldy power and honor are false. She uses the ancient idea
that good things can't come from bad and vice versa—opposites cannot be contained in the same
thing. So the fact that wicked men get honor and power is proof enough that this “honor” and
“power” are false. For true honor and power are good, therefore they can't possibly be held by a
wicked person. True honor and power, therefore, must be different from the world asserts.

Prose 7: The universe is so vast and man so tiny—why bother gaining worldly success? We all die
in the end, too, and are forgotten. Boethius notes that he sought public service so as to exercise
virtue (not power) and resists growing “old and weak through lack of use.” Philosophy responds
that this is the best kind of ambition, but still not what a perfectly virtuous mind should do.

Prose 8: Philosophy argues that misfortune is more beneficial for us than good fortune. The former
can educate us about the truth of life, whereas the latter deceives us.

Poem 8: Philosophy sings of the power of love in the natural world preserving peace and keeping
chaos at bay. She answers Boethius by specifically saying that God's government does include
human affairs: love makes peace between nations, blesses marriage, and cements friendship. But
she also imples that man can rebel against this love and alienate himself form the scheme of things.
It was in this way that Boethius lost his way by means of a perverse love, but there is a hint of
promise that by love he will be brought back again to his true home.
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Book III
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Prose 2: All men seek happiness. Happiness is defined as possession of 'the good', which is that
which, once attained, relieves man of all further desires; it contains all lesser goods within itself. All
people have the desire for this highest good, implanted in them, but foolish error leads them astray
and they pursue false goods like power, riches, fame, honors, and pleasure. Still, they pursue these
precisely because they think these will grant them that ultimate happiness if attained. And,
Philosophy admits, these are goods, of a sort.

Prose 3-8: Problem is, these lesser goods never grant self-sufficiency. Riches never free us from
wants, and we need help to protect them once we have them. Honors are subject to the whims of the
fickle public. Power makes one afraid of being overthrown. Fame is like honor—dependent upon
others' opinions. Bodily pleasures don't give happiness, but yield regret once they are satisfied; they
lead to enslavement of the body.
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Poem 8: When men pursue these goods, eventually they will see that they don't yield happiness.
Then they will recognize the true Good.
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Prose 9: None of these goods grant happiness because they are divisibles of a greater good: Selfsufficiency. Whatever is completely self-sufficient contains all other attributes within it. In fact, it is
a unity, one substance, with different names (e.g., power, pleasure, riches, etc.). Human error breaks
this naturally simple and singular state into fragments. In trying to grasp one part of this
substance—which has, in truth, no parts—men gain nothing.
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Poem 9: Invocation fo God to reveal and grant access to the highest good. It continues the theme of
God's government and control of the universe.
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Prose 10: God is highest good and therefore grants true happiness. Since happiness is divinity, men
become happy by acquiring this divinity.
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Prose 11: Long discourse proving that all things desire the good. All things desire to maintain
existence --> existence needs unity to endure --> the good is unity --> therefore all things desire the
good.
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Prose 12: Philosophy argues that God must rule the world (God is a unity; only a unity could unite
the world's multiplicity) and thus must rule all of it with goodness (since God is goodness). So all
the world works toward goodness.
Note
With regard to the wicked, Philosophy instructs Boethius not to hate them, but to have compassion, for
they have lost their own humanity. They are not beyond redemption, however—they were human once
and can regain their nature once again.