What is Happiness

Boethius’ discussion of happiness is carefully crafted and begins with discussing Fortune, and all of the things Boethius has won and lost throughout his life at the turn of her wheel. For Boethius, it is the reversal of fortune that seems to lead to his unhappiness. “In all adversity of fortune, the most wretched kind is once to have been happy” (61). Lady Philosophy corrects his thinking, however, by demonstrating that the many things men believe will make them happy can never actually achieve that promise. Chief among these false paths to happiness are wealth, rank, and power.

Speaking on Wealth, Lady Philosophy says, “wealth cannot make a man free of want and self-sufficient, though this was the very promise we saw it offering” (83). Moreover, Philosophy points out that the gathering of wealth does not stop people from taking that wealth away (83). Indeed, by its very nature, wealth seems contradictory. If we collect wealth, we believe we will be self-sufficient and free of want, so we hoard it; But “being miserly always makes men hated” (65). In its acquisition, wealth takes away from others, as it is a limited thing, and only brings hatred and paranoia to those who gather it. “[I]t is only when money is transferred to others in the exercise of liberality and ceases to be possessed that it becomes valuable” (65). The acquisition of wealth, then, is folly and can never grant true happiness.

To escape the detestation of others such as wealth might breed, men seek instead positions of rank that promise them honor and prestige. Philosophy counters this supposition by asking, “Surely such offices don’t have the power of planting virtue in the minds of those who hold them, do they?” (85). A person achieving a rank or office that co...

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...tion was not uncommon in Boethius’ day and doesn’t look to be something that will change. Power and beauty, now as then, are fleeting and double-edged blades. Both breed resentment and create a veil of stereotypes around those who possess them. Power is seen as a tool of tyrants and rarely looked upon for very long with respect. On the other hand, the idea that looking inward is the road to happiness rings with truth and does not necessitate a belief in the divine, but only a higher ideal of existence. Even if the mythology of the Christian faith fails a Western thought in the modern day, many alternative spiritualities and philosophies foster this rejection of external means of happiness and instead promote a cultivation of internal ones.

Works Cited

Boethius, and Victor Watts. The Consolation of Philosophy. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1980. Print.