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Book IV, Part III
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
Boethius agrees that being wicked turns people into animals, and laments that these people have the freedom to act out their desires. But Philosophy insists that, actually, this “freedom” is wicked people’s “punishment,” for “achiev[ing] their desires” actually makes wicked people less happy by multiplying their wickedness. Fortunately, she concludes, wicked people overcome “their misery” when they die, because otherwise their misery would be eternal and “infinite.”
Although Philosophy’s argument again looks counterintuitive, it still has internal logic: since reward simply means gaining more goodness and punishment means gaining more wickedness (or losing goodness), “freedom” is a form of “punishment” when it allows people to continue choosing to worsen (punish) themselves. Philosophy’s claim about the wicked leaving “their misery” is specifically a reference to the fact that good things are those of the soul or mind, and wicked things are those of the body. Therefore, for the wicked, death constitutes a liberation from the material things they have used to imprison and enslave themselves.
Themes
Philosophy offers another seemingly “strange” conclusion: “the wicked are happier if they suffer punishment.” And this is not just because punishment corrects and discourages wickedness. Instead, because “the punishment of the wicked is just, when the wicked receive punishment they receive something good.” Boethius asks if the wicked might be punished after death, and Philosophy confirms that they may, but that she does not plan to discuss that at the moment.
This “strange” argument that “the wicked are happier if they suffer punishment” is simply a corollary of the point Philosophy has just made, and might look more intuitive if contextualized through a concrete example: for instance, it is a worse “punishment” in the long run to let a thief go on committing crimes (and moving farther from happiness) than it would be to arrest the thief and compel them toward better behavior that would lead to increased happiness over time.
Themes
Philosophy summarizes her argument: although they appear powerful, the wicked have “no power at all,” and although they seem to have “freedom from punishment,” in fact they’re constantly being punished, and being “unjustly absolved from punishment” would only make them “more wretched.”
Philosophy has now fully responded to Boethius’s initial complaint: in Rome, the wicked who have taken over the government without suffering the proper consequences of their wickedness are, in reality, powerless and suffering more due to their “freedom” and avoidance of punishment. Therefore, according to Philosophy, it makes sense that people gain more power and “freedom from punishment” (but not real freedom) the “more wretched” they become, because this power and impunity simply make them more and more miserable. Meanwhile, the innocent who suffer in the material world maintain their goodness—and possibly amplify it because they are forced to turn to God for salvation.
Themes
Boethius notes that “ordinary [people]” would never believe Philosophy’s argument, and she agrees, noting that they are blind to the truth, for they are so caught up in “their own desires” that they forget “the order of creation.” But rewards and punishments, she emphasizes, are internal: goodness is a reward for focusing on “higher things,” and wickedness a punishment for rejecting them.
While Boethius’s note about “ordinary [people]” might be taken as a reminder that common opinion is a terrible guide to wisdom and truth, it could also be read as a sign that Philosophy is guiding Boethius further and further away from the obvious truth everyone already knows (that evil is real), and is using convoluted arguments to try and justify the unjustifiable situation that has befallen him.
Themes
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Philosophy even argues that the perpetrators of crime are the real victims of their own acts, since they are “more wretched.” The court should be “kind and sympathetic,” and the perpetrators’ guilt “cut […] like a malignant growth.” And the guilty should correct course and dedicate themselves to “acquiring goodness” through punishment. Accordingly, wise people don’t feel hatred toward the wicked. The wise should have “sympathy” and “pity” for the wicked, “who suffer an evil more severe than any physical illness.”
Interestingly, this passage outlines exactly how Philosophy has been treating Boethius throughout the entire Consolation so far. Just as evil should be seen as a disease or “malignant growth,” she saw his despair as evidence of his fall from wisdom into ignorance. But what Philosophy curiously leaves out of this passage is how, exactly, evil people might choose to dedicate their lives to “acquiring goodness.” Since their evil comes from ignorance or insufficient self-control, the process of punishment must correct these faults in order to make them desire goodness. And, in fact, this is precisely what her dialogue has done for Boethius.
Themes
In her song, Philosophy asks why people act on their frivolous emotions, risking death and attacking one another for petty, meaningless reasons. Rather than indulging in “blood and savageness,” people should “love the good, [and] show pity for the bad.”
In this song, Philosophy shows the steadfast pacifism in her moral picture of the universe—indeed, since she believes that God is absolutely benevolent, she clearly wants people to imitate Him in helping multiply the goodness in good people and bring evil people to goodness through “pity” (rather than retaliation, which would multiply their evilness).
Themes
