Would anyone here recommend this book? It was on the recommended list in the last book I read, and it seems interesting...

Yes christians have a long history of co-opting previous beliefs as their own. Boethius has long been seen as a last flowering of classical culture and people will inevitably try to take some of that.

“I suspect that beneath your offensively and vulgarly effeminate façade there may be a soul of sorts. Have you read widely in Boethius?"
>"Who? Oh, heavens no. I never even read newspapers."
"Then you must begin a reading program immediately so that you may understand the crises of our age," Ignatius said solemnly. "Begin with the late Romans, including Boethius, of course. Then you should dip rather extensively into early Medieval. You may skip the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. That is mostly dangerous propaganda. Now that I think of it, you had better skip the Romantics and the Victorians, too. For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books."
>"You're fantastic."
"I recommend Batman especially, for he tends to transcend the abysmal society in which he's found himself. His morality is rather rigid, also. I rather respect Batman.”

Nice, I'll put it on my list. Is there any specific version I should read?
what are u implying...

annoying person

Batman is a symbol of the patrician locked in a constant war with the plebeian masses for the soul of humanity.

Relihan's translation is okay, I guess. As far as English renderings go, I actually prefer Chaucer's though.

This was on my book list in university. If you're new to philosophy I guess it's pretty handy but even after a few weeks of college I thought it was a very watered down philosophy book and just stuck to lecture notes or other stuff instead.

The book is more of note for its literary qualities (which are much more evident in Latin, it's a poetic masterpiece in Latin) than philosophical innovations. It's beautiful as the *expression* of its philosophy.

How can one be new to philosophy? Philosophy is just perspective on life, and each person have their own way of looking at it. There is no right or wrong philosophy, everything is subjective. And the more perspective one amass, the more does one understand the world around him. And understanding gives happiness.

So I fail to comprehend what you mean by
>watered down philosophy
Can you elaborate?

Philosophy is a complex academic discipline (or really, more a collection of disciplines). A simple perspective on life is philosophy only in the sense that video games are art.

ty for triggering me

yea but those disciplines arise from the way people observe the world. Those disciplines are there for people to adhere to and thus giving them a sense of understanding/purpose of the world. But when you start boiling down philosophies, they pretty much all say the same thing, but with different interpretations of it.

What is that same thing that they all say?

No they don't. Marx, Aquinas and Plato say fundamentally incompatible things.

You're simply wrong. It's not known that he was a martyr for Catholicism, it's much more likely that the issue was political. But that doesn't matter, in the book himself he makes zero (0) references to Christian religion.

You can absolutely read it in a Christian way, that's how people read it for centuries, and Boethius was a Christian, not a pagan. But the book itself has nothing directly to do with Christianity and the thought is thoroughly pagan.

Do you think Providence started with Christianity? Stop man you're embarrassing yourself.

i havnt read enough from those guys to argue with u, but i have read a decent amount on Christianity, Stoicism, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism to know they all can be summarized down to "achieving happiness is through a simple life filled with compassion and understanding."

>But the book itself has nothing directly to do with Christianity and the thought is thoroughly pagan.

Which will seem like a contradiction but only because you don't know anything about pagan philosophy. The Logos is a concept from Stoicism. The very idea of life in death can be traced back to Plato, and further back to Pythagoras, the pagan theologists, mystery cults.

I'm not even being edgy here and saying "hurr xianity just borrowed everything!" If you want to believe it's a divine religion you can just as well say that God arranged paganism that way on purpose to prepare for Christ, or whatnot.

The medieval Christians themselves didn't have a problem understanding pagan philosophy and applying it to their own worldview. Don't try to out-medieval the medievals.

That's completely wrong for Christianity.

care to explain why? all of my devout christian friends agree and practice that notion on a daily basis

It's the only book that can fairly be called more influential than the Comedy on medieval thought, so, yeah. It's worth a read. Especially before Chaucer, etc. Consolation was the single most important influence on the Christianity of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, and was the last great work of the Classical Period.

It's not really about "achieving happiness", not in this life at least. It's primarily about the long, hard process of shedding one's sin, finding salvation in God, becoming closer to the ideal human of Jesus. It's an obligation and a calling, not merely a 'better way to live.'

I think you have reduced quite a lot of thought systems into a kind of hedonism in your post.

Are they liberal protestants by any chance?
In any case Christianity is not about living a good life at all, even if it doesn't have anything against it. Prayer, ritual, sacraments are on a scale of importance above being kind and understanding isn't even a concept known in it.
You, as the other user noticed, reduce it to hedonism. The goal is achieving eternal life contrary to hedonism with a lot of asceticism. Look at religious orders and tell me that you can reduce the Franciscans to "living good, compassion and understanding". You of course cannot, as it entails much more in ways mostly contradictory to the liberal mindset.

>Prayer, ritual, sacraments are on a scale of importance above being kind

I'm a bona fide papist and I wish you wouldn't say things like this that are entirely false. Re-read the gospels. Of course the sacraments are essential but someone who goes to mass every day but is mean everybody around him probably doesn't stand well in the eyes of God.

Of course it is about a lot more than kindness, kindness isn't anywhere near enough. It's very easy to be "nice" to people, you should do more than that. And I'm sure a lot of these austere ascetic saints weren't the easiest people to get along with. But saying kindness has no place in Christianity just makes you look like a dick.

I understand what you're talking about - this insipid white-bread Protestant thing that says "God wants me to be happy and I'm going to heaven!! Come sing these neat songs with us user!!" But Christianity is basically about love, and kindness is part of love.

>If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13

Maybe "happiness" was the wrong word to use. "Peace" would be better. Everybody wants peace at some level, and everybody has their unique way of getting it. And there is happiness in peace. And in order to show true compassion you need a level of understanding in order to really help people. So compassion and understanding are interlinked

In the final part Boethius tackles the problem of free will and how that fits with an omniscient god. He doesn't really solve the problem, but it's a noble attempt and he definitely goes a long way to clarify the problem.

But is that part all his own argument? Or does it come from an earlier greek source?

>Veeky Forums unironically showing mass familiarity with Boethus