with that which only He knows. While Boethius must admit that free will exists only in
the minds of humans, he maintains that things are not deprived of their true nature by the
necessity of their happening. ?In spite of the fact that they do happen, their existence
does not deprive them of their true nature, in virtue of which the possibility of their
non-occurrence existed before they happened.?(p.167)
The major themes of The Consolation of Philosophy can be summarized as
follows. While it is true that the upright often suffer and the corrupt often take much
pleasure in their lives, justice is always served by virtue of the fact that goodness is its
own reward, while the wicked never find true happiness, because happiness is goodness
and goodness is God. Evil is nothing and has no power, but the wicked derive their
power from weakness. Fortune is a fickle goddess whom is neither to be trusted nor
associated with. God views time as a perpetual presence, and consequently does not
foresee the future, but rather always knows the present. But the present time of God is
sometimes the future of humans, so God knows the future and thus things happen out of
necessity. But just because all things happen out of necessity doesn?t mean that their
ability to not happen is taken away; it just couldn?t possibly happen.
One may reasonably conclude that many parts of the book seem confused and
contradictory. His logic often seems to manipulate reason, and the conclusions drawn
from such logic may appear contrived and largely unbelievable. But one must consider
the fact that Boethius was facing the eminence of death as he wrote this, and certainly
felt the necessity to find the answers to those philosophical questions he?d been asking all
his life. Even if the answers he found may not be convincing to a reader of this work, it
does propose some very interesting solutions and is certainly worth reading if only for the
fact that it will inevitably lead the one questioning his own convictions on such obscure
topics. One might safely assume that Boethius was writing this largely for his own
benefit. If this is true, then clearly the most important thing is not that he convinces his
audiences through time, but that he himself believed these things and found peace and
consolation in his thoughts and words.