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Philosophize This!

Episode #017 ... Boethius

Philosophize This!

Stephen West

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.817.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2014

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of the podcast, we learn about the medieval neoplatonist philosopher Boethius. We find out how he came to be wrongly convicted of treason and subsequently sentenced to death, and how this led him to write a philosophical text that solved one of the oldest problems in philosophy. We manage to compare the main characters of Boethius’ book to Lady Liberty and Eeyore selling a rice cooker on QVC, and explain why Boethius believed that we’re all just contestants on a never-ending episode of Wheel of Fortune. All this and more on the latest episode of Philosophize This! Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help.  Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis  Social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

For more information about this or any episode of the podcast, check out the website at

0:04.8

philosophizethis.org.

0:06.4

We have additional content, further reading, transcripts of every show, all three, of course.

0:12.2

But if you value the shows and educational resource and you want to help keep it going,

0:15.8

you can find out more about how to do that at patreon.com slash philosophize this.

0:20.4

Or alternatively, if you're buying something from Amazon this week anyway, consider

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clicking through our banner.

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It's at the bottom center of the landing page of philosophizethis.org.

0:29.6

One percentage goes back to the show.

0:31.3

It may just be a click for you, but every little bit adds up.

0:34.4

Thank you for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday.

0:37.2

And I hope you love the show.

0:39.7

Try to imagine yourself trapped in a prison cell, convicted to death, no chance of an appeal,

0:46.9

and you know you're going to die soon in some horrific, painful way for something that

0:51.7

you didn't even do.

0:53.4

If you were in that situation, how would you spend your time?

0:57.2

This isn't just me being dramatic.

0:59.3

Really try to put yourself in that situation and ask yourself, what would be important

1:03.4

to you in that moment?

1:05.8

Boethius was a medieval, neo-platinist philosopher who found himself in that moment.

1:11.7

Up until that point, he really had a pretty good standing in the world, while considering

1:15.6

it was living in a society that was growing increasingly corrupt and intolerant by the

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