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A review by casparb
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
3.0
The Medievals are hard to gauge from here. Boethius seems less electric & revolutionary than Augustine, but I'm ignorant about how these things work. The Wheel of Fortune is quite fun, though I think a lot of buffing out is needed if we're to remotely take it seriously. The big idea which occurs here (that I vaguely recollect from A level philosophy) is the compatibility of free will with God, and temporality, as in coexisting with an eternal creator. It works out quite neatly.
If I remember rightly, Dante provides a space for Boethius in Paradiso (one of the lower planets, I think?). There's actually an interesting similarity going on between the Dante/Beatrice relationship and Boethius/Philosophy-as-woman (recall Nietzsche BG&E: If truth is a woman...). We can distinguish by allegory compared to the symbolic. That is to say, Dante's use of Beatrice as a symbol is more sophisticated, but probably we'd expect as much from ~800 years advantage.
If I remember rightly, Dante provides a space for Boethius in Paradiso (one of the lower planets, I think?). There's actually an interesting similarity going on between the Dante/Beatrice relationship and Boethius/Philosophy-as-woman (recall Nietzsche BG&E: If truth is a woman...). We can distinguish by allegory compared to the symbolic. That is to say, Dante's use of Beatrice as a symbol is more sophisticated, but probably we'd expect as much from ~800 years advantage.