Themes
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
“Bodily pleasure,” Philosophy argues, actually leads its seekers to the opposite of happiness: “great illness and unbearable pain.” Plus, if physical pleasure is enough for happiness, then animals would be considered happy because their only goal in life is “the fulfillment of bodily needs.” For instance, even the most “honest” of bodily pleasures—having and enjoying one’s family—can lead to pain, as some children “torment[]” their parents.
Pleasure, the fifth and final of the false routes to happiness, is also self-undermining, according to Philosophy. Philosophy’s argument about family is curious, since earlier in the book she argued that Boethius was fortunate precisely because of his loving family. However, it is worth recalling that she thinks that “wealth, position, power, fame, [and] pleasure” are not inherently bad, but only worthless beyond the certain amount that is necessary for humans to pursue the things that do make up true happiness. Therefore, she has no need to argue that it is wrong for Boethius to have a loving, supportive family—it simply will never be enough to make him truly happy, because it is merely one of Fortune’s gifts.
Themes
In a brief song, Philosophy compares bodily pleasures to bees, which first provide honey and then sting people.
Although Philosophy makes her point quickly and claims it to be obvious that the pursuit of pleasure leads people to be stung later on, in many ways this part of Book III might be the most controversial today. Indeed, it even would have been in Boethius’s time, since a prominent group of Greek philosophers (led by Epicurus) came to precisely the opposite conclusion. And what might Philosophy say about non-bodily pleasures—like the sense of wonder long associated with doing philosophy itself? Where would this fit in?
Themes
