Episode 158: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (Part One)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2017
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the Consolation, written as he awaited execution in 524 CE. Do bad things really happen to good people? Boethius, surprisingly, says no, for Stoic (anything that can be taken away can't be of central importance; you can't lose your virtue in this way), Aristotelian (all things tend toward the good, and the best thing for a person is achieving his or her innate potential, which is to be virtuous), and Christian (God's unknowable plan means that even the stuff that seems bad really isn't) reasons.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The partial examin' life relies on your support to find out how to help in ways that are cheap |
| 0:04.4 | or even free for you. |
| 0:05.6 | Please visit partialexaminalife.com slash support. |
| 0:09.2 | You're listening to the partially examined life Faye podcast by some guys who are at |
| 0:20.6 | one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. |
| 0:24.6 | Our question for episode 158 is something like, |
| 0:28.4 | what are the constellations of philosophy? |
| 0:30.4 | And we read the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius from the year 524 Christian Era. |
| 0:37.6 | To get the reading and more information please check out partiallyexaminalife.com. |
| 0:42.4 | My name is Mark Linton-Meyer, captive of my own freedom in medicine, Wisconsin. |
| 0:46.8 | Hmm, that sounded vaguely existentialist. |
| 0:49.4 | This is Seth Pascon contemplating the nature between simple and conditional necessity |
| 0:53.6 | in Austin, Texas. |
| 0:55.0 | This is Wes Allone ready to play Wheel of Fortune in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
| 1:00.0 | This is Dylan Casey wondering whether my disease of guilt might be cured by punishment. |
| 1:05.7 | I'm in middle to Wisconsin. |
| 1:07.3 | I think Wes wins on this one. |
| 1:09.3 | Alright, we did Augustine a little while ago who was, when was Augustine? |
| 1:16.3 | About a hundred years before Boethius, right? |
| 1:19.4 | That sounds right and then Senekah also was around that time. |
| 1:23.0 | So 4bc to 65 AD Senekah and then St. Augustine. |
| 1:27.0 | 354 to 430. |
... |
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