The Consolation of Philosophy is written by Boethius while in prison awaiting for his execution. It starts out with Boethius talking to lady philosophy and she starts to tell him about the philosophical view on Christianity. She begins by explaining that the vagaries of Fortune visit everyone and she has came there to "cure" him of all his suffering and sickness he is feeling through this troubling time. Boethius's view is more of a philosophical point of view meaning that he uses reasoning and experience to base his view of God. He doesn’t understand why bad things happen to good people and why good things happen to bad people. Boethius had a hard time understanding that God would allow good people to have a troubling life. Boethius has a …show more content…
more philosophical point of view meaning that he uses reasoning and experience to base his view of God. The written copy manuscript of "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis. These books are about the experience with Christ and Christianity, and how this experience helped with his new way in life. Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) was a late medieval monk that underwent a monastic life. He spent his entire monastic life in the monastery of Mount St.
Agnes at Zwolle. Kempis approaches Christianity with the idea and belief that with everything you do, you should try and do so as Christ has done. He has more of an action approach meaning that your understanding and life after death is based off of whether or not you act like Christ. He explains In these books about how god looked about and over his people. By this it is telling you how you need to see you Christian experience and how they need to live there life and follow the way and life god wants you to live.
Boethius and Kempis have very different views as you can tell in the previous paragraphs, one way they are different is their view on Christianity. Boethius has more of an philosophical view on Christianity while Kempis has more of an action approach.
Boethius was wrongfully accused of treason and imprisoned, leading him to question as to why God would allow bad things to happen to good people and how you can not be completely happy and there is never true happiness. The fear of losing happiness destroys happiness. "No man is so completely happy that something somewhere does not clash with his condition. It is the nature of human affairs to be fraught with anxiety; they never prosper perfectly and they never remain constant" Boethius (30). This quote represents the fear of losing happiness destroys happiness in my
mind. Boethius approach is mainly about the idea of predestination Kempis’ approach is kinda different of Boethius. Kempis main view on Christianity is based off of the idea or belief of self-determined destiny based off of one’s actions. "Do not put your trust in friends and relatives, and do not put off the care of your soul till later, for men will forget you more quickly than you think. It is better to provide now in time, and send some good account ahead of you than to rely on the help of others." Kempis (22). This quote speaks to me; it means to do the right thing while your still on this planet and do what is meant to do to be accepted by Christ and the goal of self-denial is not to have perfect self mortification, but to imitate the person and work of Jesus Christ. Boethius has his trust in god and strongly believes that god has you in his hands and every action you take is controlled by god and no matter what you do he will determine the outcome. Even though Boethius and Kempis had different views on how to be accepted by Christ they also believed in the same outcome.They both agreed that power, money, fame, and physical pleasure should not be what takes the place of Christ. They believed that if one has power, money, fame, and physical fame does not mean that you are not safe and bad things can happen to good people. "We have agreed that perfect good is true happiness; so that it follows that true happiness is to be found in the supreme God" Boethius (69). I chose this quote because both Boethius and Kempis can relate to it. Kempis and Boethius both believe in the lord and the power he holds over us. They both view Christ as a higher power and both desire the be accepted by the lord and be saved from a suffering afterlife. "Even if you don’t know the reason behind the great plan of the universe, there is no need for you to doubt that a good power rules the world and that everything happens alright" (Kempis 102). This quote means whatever happens in life it is happening for a reason to not worry. In conclusion, Boethius and Kempis have different ways of approaching and explaining Christianity. Boethius approach is based on the idea that your destiny and fate is determined by God and regardless of what you do or what you’ve done God has already chosen the outcome of life. The Lord has decided if you endure suffer or experience great fortune. Kempis focuses attention on the idea of self-determined destiny that was based off one’s actions and if you follow the path of the lord you will be praised for it. But, even though they are different and alike in many ways they both give off a very strong message in these books I've read and the main message I have captured is that the power of the lord is strong, all knowing, and can be reached even by the most poorest or powerful man.
1. "My happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end."
Therefore, happiness is “what provokes us, incites us, need not come from our own time. Indeed, our own time may be and probably is so d
I was given the task to make a decision concerning the confession of Alexandros of Nicomedia regarding his Monophysite beliefs. After carefully studying Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, and closely analyzing his arguments, I was able to come to a conclusion. Boethius would argue that the correct thing to do is punish Alexandros to push him to reform himself rather than just senseless torture, given that wicked men technically do not exist, wicked men are already punishing themselves and wicked man can reform themselves by suing the right punishment.
Consequently, this should not bring him comfort since he is unable to understand it. To fully trust and find comfort in what Lady Philosophy tells Boethius, he must have faith not only in the reasoning of Lady Philosophy but also in a good God. One cannot reason himself to see all things working out for good, they must have faith. Only Providence is capable of seeing how exactly everything works out in the end, humans are left with limited knowledge and the capacity to have faith and trust in God. This is the situation Boethius is left in. His situation is dire, and Lady Philosophy is attempting to help him by reasoning him through a series of assumption to cure him of his sorrow. But in the end, Boethius must have faith to find true
This is seemingly the case in the time period prior to the collapse of society. For example, when a character named “[Jeevan] reached Allan Gardens Park… he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy. Arthur died… there’s nothing to be happy about. But there was… now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic” (11). When Jeevan finally realized what he wanted to be, his true calling, he was overwhelmed with joy. Even though somebody had just died, all he could feel was happiness because he found something within himself. When Arthur was beginning to reflect upon his life, “He stared at his crown and ran through a secret list of everything that was good… Dancing with Clark when he was eighteen… Tanya sipping wine, her smile… Riding in his father’s snowplow when he was nine, the time [he] told a joke and his father and his little brother couldn’t stop laughing, the sheer joy he’d felt at that moment” (327). All of these different things brought Arthur happiness and eventually sadness at some point in his life, showing that nothing can keep you happy forever. The meaning of happiness is ever-changing. Since happiness was based off of how much you had, people had the ability to manipulate it by obtaining more
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).
Fate seems to lurk in the shadows of these characters very being and it is this force in which they acknowledge their mortality as human beings. Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which may be very helpful in interpreting the meaning of fate in the epic poem Beowulf. Boethius creates fate as a female character that attempts to heal the mind of a troubled man. Richard Green translates some of Boethius’s work in the introduction and interprets this woman’s role as, “She represented fate as a random, uncontrollable force, to be feared or courted, opposed or despised” (xvi). Green is trying to unfold the meaning of fate and Boethius’s intent to illustrate its effects on a man’s life. Boethius himself says that, “Fate moves the heavens and the stars, governs the elements in their mixture, and transforms them by mutual change, it renews all things that are born and die by the reproduction of similar offspring and seeds. This same power binds the actions and fortunes of men in an unbreakable chain of causes and, since these causes have their own origins in an unchangeable providence, they too must necessarily be
The most important Boethian influence Chaucer extracts is the intensity of something being increased or decreased by the knowledge of its opposite. Boethius' main discussion of this concept is in books three and four deal where he deals with the problem of evil. The question at hand is, "How can evil exist in a world with an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God?" If God is all-powerful, is anything impossible for God? If God is all-good, can God commit evil? After much discussion, Boethius concludes that evil is a lack of good and those who commit evil lack something. He writes, "so it is plain that those who are capable of evil are capable of less" (Boethius 110). He continues, "Therefore the power of doing evil is no object of desire" (110). Thus "the power of doing evil" is a lack of "the power of doing good." Boethius can know what evil is only when he first realizes how to determine good.
Epicurus provides some great ideas towards what constitutes happiness and ‘the good life’ that can be applied to many facets of life, however I believe some aspects must be further contemplated to find a more infallible theory. The view that one can only feel pleasure in the absence of pain seems to be one that is very black and white and does not seem to take in the intricacies of modern society. Fundamentally, the pursuit of certain pleasures and the minimisation of pain would likely result in happiness, however a mild dosing of the contrary could also contribute to ‘happiness and the good life’.
A lot of people wonder what true happiness really is if they will ever experience true happiness. If you ask a person, what is true happiness, everyone will have different happiness. True happiness is not only found in one place and it is not always found in the same place for everyone. In Fahrenheit 451 Montag thought that he was happy when in reality he was not even in love with Mildred and neither was he happy. This is proven when Clarisse puts the dandelion under his chin. True Happiness can be not worrying about anything and letting loose without a care in the world. It can also mean freedom, even spending time with loved ones and family.
Despite Boethius’s initial resistance, Lady Philosophy shows that because Boethius did not own his wealth or position, he was subject to Fortune’s transitory...
In “Richard Cory” by Edwin Robinson, people thought of Richard Cory as a happy person who had everything he could have ever asked for, when in reality he struggles with his happiness. Comparatively, in “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, Montag starts to lose his happiness more and more as the truth is revealed to him. Both of these literature works revolve around the theme of happiness and how it can be perceived by the society.
Marcus Aurelius was a famous philosopher in 121 through 180 C.E. He lived a hard life and even though he was surrounded by crowds he was considered a recluse. He was known for his kindness and mercy. The last years of his life were spent on a military campaign. It is said that these years were the hardest and loneliest. However, instead of becoming bitter and angry Aurelius wrote The Meditations. This was a diary or journal of his personal thoughts. He believed that by writing this it was his duty to his soul. The Meditations, is a popular piece of stoic literature. In this paper I will be describing how Aurelius used stoicism in book two of The Meditations and what I liked and did not like about what he said.
“Nothing can bring to a man so much of happiness or so much of misery as man himself.” – Frederick Douglass