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Detail of Biography - Boethius
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Boethius
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Biography - Boethius
(b ´th s) (KEY) , Boetius (b ´sh s) (KEY) , or Boece (b s´) (KEY) (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), c.475–525, Roman philosopher and statesman. An honored figure in the public life of Rome, where he was consul in 510, he became the able minister of the Emperor Theodoric. Late in Theodoric’s reign false charges of treason were brought against Boethius; after imprisonment in Pavia, he was sentenced without trial and put to death. While in prison he wrote his greatest work, De consolatione philosophiae (tr. The Consolation of Philosophy). His treatise on ancient music, De musica, was for a thousand years the unquestioned authority on music in the West. One of the last ancient Neoplatonists, Boethius translated some of the writings of Aristotle and made commentaries on them. His works served to transmit Greek philosophy to the early centuries of the Middle Ages.
See H. F. Stewart, Boethius (1891); H. Chadwick, Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy (1981); E. Reiss, Boethius (1982).
The question of free will has been debated for years. Many different conclusions have been drawn from the discussions. Boethius contemplates this while he is in jail. He doesn’t understand how, if chance isn’t real, there can be free will. For example, if a farmer finds gold in his field, it is not by chance that he has found the gold. It is [br /]
because his path, or chain, as Boethius calls it, has crossed with another’s chain. With someone’s path who had put the gold there in the first place. Boethius asks "Does our will have any freedom? Or are the motions of human souls also bound by the fatal chain?"[br /]
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Lady philosophy appears to him in a vision, and answers this question for him. She explains that the mere fact that we are capable of reason ensures that we have free will. Our reason enables us to make judgments that enable us to make decisions. We have the capability to determine what should be sought after, and what we should exclude from our lives. "But I do not say that this freedom is the same in all beings" Lady Philosophy explains. She gives us the levels of freedom of the mind. We are most free when we[br /]
are "engaged in contemplation of the divine mind." The next step down is when "they are joined to bodies" and the lowest is "when they are bound by earthly fetters." She says that we are in "utter slavery" when we totally lose sight of what is good for us and give in to our addictions. But she says that God foresees this and puts everyone in a situation to fit his or her needs. [br /]
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This creates another problem for Boethius. If God knows our actions before we do them, and it is impossible for him to be wrong, then he doesn’t understand how we can possibly have free will. He believes that it is pre-determined if God has perfect foresight. "It is necessary either that things which are going to happen be foreseen by God, or that what God foresees will in fact happen; and either way the freedom of the human will is destroyed." Lady Philosophy tells him that God is eternal, therefore the past present and future are simultaneous for him. Therefore, even though tomorrow hasn’t happened to him it is today, tomorrow and yesterday, therefore he knows what will happen without directing it to happen. "Stand firm against vice and cultivate virtue. Lift up your soul to worthy hopes, and offer humble prayers to heaven. If you will face it, the necessity of virtuous action imposed upon you is very great, since all your actions are done in the sight of a Judge who sees all things." [br /]
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Boethius becomes known for this explanation which he believes answers all questions on free will.[br /]
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