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Book III, Part VIII
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Consolation of Philosophy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Classical Philosophy and Medieval Christianity
Wisdom, Fortune, and Happiness
The Problem of Evil
Human Free Will and God’s Foreknowledge
Summary
Analysis
Now that Philosophy has taught Boethius about “false happiness,” she will explain genuine happiness. First, she argues that “self-sufficiency” implies power: anything with “some weakness […] need[s] the help of something else,” whereas anything powerful would not need outside support. Then, she asks Boethius whether a self-sufficient and powerful being is “contempt[ible], or […] supremely worthy of veneration.” He agrees that it is the latter, and also that a revered, powerful, self-sufficient thing would “be unsurpassed in fame and glory” and, most of all, “supremely happy.” Philosophy concludes that “sufficiency, power, glory, reverence and happiness” are all one and the same: they have different names, but the same underlying meaning. Boethius agrees.
At long last, Philosophy gives Boethius the answer he has been waiting for all along. Having considered the five false paths to happiness separately, now she looks at them together and explains why they all imply one another. She has already explained that perfect happiness requires self-sufficiency (because no perfectly happy person would ever need anything they do not already have). She explains here that self-sufficiency comes with “veneration” and “fame and glory,” which means that perfect happiness—by virtue of requiring self-sufficiency—also comes with these things. Therefore, a “supremely happy” person will have all the things that pursuers of “wealth, position, power, fame, [and] pleasure” were seeking all along—and yet, this person will do so without ever pursuing any of these five goals. (Although Lady Philosophy does not explicitly mention pleasure here, she soon begins talking about “joy.”)
Active
Themes
However, Philosophy argues, “human perversity” separates out these five goals and tries to pursue them separately. But because these things are really an indivisible whole, humans are “attempting to obtain part of something which has no parts.” This throws them off balance: for instance, someone might sacrifice self-sufficiency and glory in their quest for power, and thereby sacrifice the very power they seek. Boethius realizes that, in contrast, one must pursue these five things together, which Philosophy confirms would mean “seeking the sum of happiness.” Boethius ecstatically declares that he now understands: “true and perfect happiness is that which makes a [person] self-sufficient, strong, worthy of respect, glorious and joyful.”
There is a striking parallel between Philosophy’s analysis of “human perversity” here and Boethius’s comments on Philosophy herself at the beginning of the book: people pursue false versions of happiness by tearing the five goals apart from one another, just as Roman society has mistreated Lady Philosophy by tearing pieces off of her dress—which symbolizes their tendency to take specific, convenient ideas from Ancient Greek philosophers without considering those thinkers’ overall conclusions and insights. Like happiness, the wisdom of Philosophy truly “has no parts,” and to try and take just part of it is to destroy the integrity of the whole. In fact, philosophy’s purpose is precisely to help people achieve happiness—and, since Philosophy soon argues that “the sum of happiness” involves philosophical reflection, in fact these two metaphors are two versions of the same story. That is, “perversity” separating out happiness's parts is the same thing as “marauders” destroying Philosophy’s dress.
Active
Themes
Philosophy praises Boethius’s insight, but tells him that he needs to “add one thing.” She asks whether “these mortal and degenerate things” can lead to what they have described as “perfect happiness,” and Boethius agrees that they cannot. Philosophy argues that the physical world can “offer [humans] only shadows of the true good” and asks Boethius where he thinks this “true happiness” can be found. She notes that “Plato was pleased to ask for divine help even over small matters” in the dialogue Timaeus, and Boethius agrees that he should “pray to the Father of all things.”
Active
Themes
Philosophy tells Boethius that he is correct and starts singing a hymn based heavily on Plato’s dialogue Timaeus. She praises God, whose “everlasting reason” and absolute power allowed Him to create the world out of nothing. She sings that God contains the “highest good,” is the “height of beauty,” and turns “perfect parts [into] a perfect whole” by combining opposites harmoniously. As “soul,” God permeates nature and controls everything, sending “souls and lesser lives” out into the world before eventually receiving them back. She asks God to give His worshippers a clear picture of him and the “true good” that he embodies.
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