The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter V: The Fifth and Sixth Centuries
The fifth century saw the break up of the Empire and centralized authority was preserved only in the Church and that was accomplished with much effort.
The Goths took over Italy, the Vandals took Africa, the Visigoths took over in the South of France and the Franks took over France and Germany.
There was also the horror of Atilla and his Hunnic rabble from the east.
The theological hairsplitting of Cyril and Nestorius over a Christological matter erupted into violence. Nestorius claimed that there were two persons in Christ, one human and one divine. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic in a sham of an ecumenical council. Nestorius however did not recant and Nestorian Christianity was popular in Syria and even traveled to China and India where it was rediscovered centuries later by western missionaries.
After the Nestorian heresy came the opposite, the Monophysite heresy, that claimed Christ had only one nature. At the end of two ecumenical councils, the Council of Ephesus and the Council of Chalcedon Christianity declared that there is only one person of Christ but that he exists in two natures, one human and one divine.
The heresies of Nestorius and Monophysitism weakened the bonds of Christianity and facilitated the Arab conquest. "The heresy of the Abyssinians was given by Mussolini as one of his reasons for conquering them" (Russell, 369).
During the 6th century four men emerged as important: Boethius, Justinian, Benedict and Gregory the Great.
Boethius, author of Consolations of Philosophy was put to death by the Arian ruler of Italy, Theodoric when Justin the Eastern emperor proscribed Arianism.
"Boethius is a singular figure. Throughout the Middle Ages he was read and admired, regarded
always as a devout Christian, and treated almost as if he had been one of the Fathers. Yet his
Consolations of Philosophy, written in 524 while he was awaiting execution, is purely Platonic; it
does not prove that he was not a Christian, but it does show that pagan philosophy had a much
stronger hold on him then Christian theology. Some theological works, especially one on the
Trinity, which are attributed to him, are by many authorities considered to be spurious; but it was
probably owing to them that the Middle Ages were able to regard him as orthodox, and to imbibe
from him much Platonism which would otherwise have been viewed with suspicion." (Russell, 370).
A lot of the morality of Boethius is Stoic in nature. He takes on the privation theory of evil.
He claimed that men become happy by becoming a god. There is only one God, but there are many by participation in God.
Only the virtuous obtain the good.
Given that the book was written in prison under the sentence of death the work is as admirable as the last moment of Platonic Socrates.
Showing posts with label Boethius. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boethius. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Boethius - Russell
(Originally written November 14, 2006 in Book 7)
Poor Book VII! How unfortunate to be the course of History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. You both have been neglected of so long. For months have you been sitting idly.
The History will further sit, waiting for its pages to be read. But alas, Book VII will once again feel the touch of ink upon its pages. Rejoice! Rejoice! The time has come!
Classics of Philosophy 2nd Edition
Louis Pojman
Boethius
-480 - 524 AD
-Roman patrician, consul of Rome and minister to the Ostrogoth King Theodoric
-Last of the Roman philosophers
-1st of the scholastic theologians
Boethius was falsely accused of treason, imprisoned and then bludgeoned to death
Wow! I'm excited to read him now! Thanks Louis!
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius' greatest work was written while he was in prison.
Philosophy is articulated as a beautiful woman by Boethius. The woman heals his ailing soul. She leads him from lonely despair to an understanding and resignation of Providence.
Philosophy, to Boethius, was an explanation of how chance and free will can be reconciled with divine foreknowledge.
The Consolation of Philosophy
1. Philosophy discusses the nature of chance
The question of Providence is bound up in many questions.
Chance, as the outcome of random action produced by no sequence of causes, does not exist.
God keeps everything in order, so random chance is impossible.
Chance, is true as defined by Aristotle. Whenever an intentional act causes an unintentional result, chance or accident has occurred.
"Chance therefore may be defined as an unexpected result from the coincidence of certain causes is matter done for some other purpose" (Pojman, 448).
2. Philosophy asserts the Existence of Free Will
Free will is necessary for reasoning nature. Since there is reasoning nature, there is free will.
Reason brings desire and refuse. Reason allows judgments. If there are judgments then objects must be desirable and refuse-able
Freedom is not equal in all beings. Heavenly will is uncorrupted and thus have the power to effect their desire.
Human wills are corrupted. The more they are in contemplation of the divine will, the more they are free to effect their desires.
Men become slaves to their vices and the more entrapped in their vices the more of a slave they become to their own freedom.
3. Boethius cannot reconcile God's foreknowledge with Human Free Will
There is an incompatibility between God's foreknowledge and man's free will. If God knows man's actions and his desires then they are necessary and thus, there is no free will.
Is God's foreknowledge the cause of necessary future events or is necessary future events the cause of God's foreknowledge?
Knowledge is unmixed with falsity.
How does God know future things if they are uncertain? If he has only opinion he is not God, which is impious and absurd.
If there is no free will, punishments and rewards are in vain.
Prayer is rendered useless in the loss of free will.
4. Philosophy tries to show how foreknowledge and free will may be reconciled
Step-by-step reasoning will never illuminate what foreknowledge is. It has failed over and over again and will continue to fail.
Knowledge of things presently occurring does not cause those things known to be necessary. Foreknowledge works this way too.
5. Philosophy discusses the various grades of cognition
Knowledge occurs by the comprehender's comprehension, not by the force of what the knowledge is of. I know 'A' because I comprehend 'A', not because 'A' exists.
The senses consider a thing as it appears.
The imagination considers a thing without relation to that thing's body.
The reason contemplates the universal aspects of a thing as it investigates the particular thing.
Insight goes further than reason and contemplates the idea of that certain thing.
Hierarchy of faculties:
Insight (highest)
Reason
Imagination
Senses (lowest)
The higher faculty always uses the lower faculties, but lower faculties can never use higher ones.
6. Philosophy discusses the difference between human reason and divine insight
The more faculties a being has the higher its cognitive ability.
Sense - non-moving animals
Imagination - Moving animals
Reason - man alone
Insight - God alone
The senses must yield to imagination. Both of these must yield to reason. And reason must yield to insight.
Reason cannot grasp foreknowledge; only insight can. Thus, since only God has insight, man cannot grasp foreknowledge.
7. Philosophy explains that God's insight views all things in their eternal design, while human reason can see them only from a temporal view point
God is eternal. "Eternity is the complete possession of an endless life enjoyed as one simultaneous whole" (Pojman, 452).
Temporal existence is grasping shifting moments.
Even if time were infinite it would not be eternal because it is an infinite succession of moments.
An eternal being could behold infinity all at once because infinitude does not encompass eternity. Eternity encompasses infinitude.
God is eternal while the universe is perpetual.
God's foreknowledge then exists in eternity, which is non-temporal. Foreknowledge occurs to him as present so really it is merely a present knowledge of a temporal thing. It appears as foreknowledge to us because we are temporal beings.
God's foreknowledge does not make things necessary to happen, but when any action of man's is examined in its own nature it is free and unrestrained.
There are two kinds of necessity:
1) Simple
2) Conditional
Simple necessity is things happen because they are necessary
Conditional necessity is things, if they are happening, are necessarily happening.
God's foreknowledge makes things conditionally necessary. He sees things happening, thus they are necessarily happening.
Thus, because the necessity that God's foreknowledge puts on man's actions is a conditional one. Man's free will is true and responsibility remains in tact.
Poor Book VII! How unfortunate to be the course of History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. You both have been neglected of so long. For months have you been sitting idly.
The History will further sit, waiting for its pages to be read. But alas, Book VII will once again feel the touch of ink upon its pages. Rejoice! Rejoice! The time has come!
Classics of Philosophy 2nd Edition
Louis Pojman
Boethius
-480 - 524 AD
-Roman patrician, consul of Rome and minister to the Ostrogoth King Theodoric
-Last of the Roman philosophers
-1st of the scholastic theologians
Boethius was falsely accused of treason, imprisoned and then bludgeoned to death
Wow! I'm excited to read him now! Thanks Louis!
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius' greatest work was written while he was in prison.
Philosophy is articulated as a beautiful woman by Boethius. The woman heals his ailing soul. She leads him from lonely despair to an understanding and resignation of Providence.
Philosophy, to Boethius, was an explanation of how chance and free will can be reconciled with divine foreknowledge.
The Consolation of Philosophy
1. Philosophy discusses the nature of chance
The question of Providence is bound up in many questions.
Chance, as the outcome of random action produced by no sequence of causes, does not exist.
God keeps everything in order, so random chance is impossible.
Chance, is true as defined by Aristotle. Whenever an intentional act causes an unintentional result, chance or accident has occurred.
"Chance therefore may be defined as an unexpected result from the coincidence of certain causes is matter done for some other purpose" (Pojman, 448).
2. Philosophy asserts the Existence of Free Will
Free will is necessary for reasoning nature. Since there is reasoning nature, there is free will.
Reason brings desire and refuse. Reason allows judgments. If there are judgments then objects must be desirable and refuse-able
Freedom is not equal in all beings. Heavenly will is uncorrupted and thus have the power to effect their desire.
Human wills are corrupted. The more they are in contemplation of the divine will, the more they are free to effect their desires.
Men become slaves to their vices and the more entrapped in their vices the more of a slave they become to their own freedom.
3. Boethius cannot reconcile God's foreknowledge with Human Free Will
There is an incompatibility between God's foreknowledge and man's free will. If God knows man's actions and his desires then they are necessary and thus, there is no free will.
Is God's foreknowledge the cause of necessary future events or is necessary future events the cause of God's foreknowledge?
Knowledge is unmixed with falsity.
How does God know future things if they are uncertain? If he has only opinion he is not God, which is impious and absurd.
If there is no free will, punishments and rewards are in vain.
Prayer is rendered useless in the loss of free will.
4. Philosophy tries to show how foreknowledge and free will may be reconciled
Step-by-step reasoning will never illuminate what foreknowledge is. It has failed over and over again and will continue to fail.
Knowledge of things presently occurring does not cause those things known to be necessary. Foreknowledge works this way too.
5. Philosophy discusses the various grades of cognition
Knowledge occurs by the comprehender's comprehension, not by the force of what the knowledge is of. I know 'A' because I comprehend 'A', not because 'A' exists.
The senses consider a thing as it appears.
The imagination considers a thing without relation to that thing's body.
The reason contemplates the universal aspects of a thing as it investigates the particular thing.
Insight goes further than reason and contemplates the idea of that certain thing.
Hierarchy of faculties:
Insight (highest)
Reason
Imagination
Senses (lowest)
The higher faculty always uses the lower faculties, but lower faculties can never use higher ones.
6. Philosophy discusses the difference between human reason and divine insight
The more faculties a being has the higher its cognitive ability.
Sense - non-moving animals
Imagination - Moving animals
Reason - man alone
Insight - God alone
The senses must yield to imagination. Both of these must yield to reason. And reason must yield to insight.
Reason cannot grasp foreknowledge; only insight can. Thus, since only God has insight, man cannot grasp foreknowledge.
7. Philosophy explains that God's insight views all things in their eternal design, while human reason can see them only from a temporal view point
God is eternal. "Eternity is the complete possession of an endless life enjoyed as one simultaneous whole" (Pojman, 452).
Temporal existence is grasping shifting moments.
Even if time were infinite it would not be eternal because it is an infinite succession of moments.
An eternal being could behold infinity all at once because infinitude does not encompass eternity. Eternity encompasses infinitude.
God is eternal while the universe is perpetual.
God's foreknowledge then exists in eternity, which is non-temporal. Foreknowledge occurs to him as present so really it is merely a present knowledge of a temporal thing. It appears as foreknowledge to us because we are temporal beings.
God's foreknowledge does not make things necessary to happen, but when any action of man's is examined in its own nature it is free and unrestrained.
There are two kinds of necessity:
1) Simple
2) Conditional
Simple necessity is things happen because they are necessary
Conditional necessity is things, if they are happening, are necessarily happening.
God's foreknowledge makes things conditionally necessary. He sees things happening, thus they are necessarily happening.
Thus, because the necessity that God's foreknowledge puts on man's actions is a conditional one. Man's free will is true and responsibility remains in tact.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
The 5th and 6th Centuries
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter V - The 5th and 6th Centuries
After Augustine died in 430 there was little philosophy.
The most important invaders of the Empire in the 5th century were the Goths. The Goths attacked the west. The huns attacked the East. The Ostrogoths ended the Western Empire in 476. The Vandals conquered Africa and Spain. The Visigoths conquered southern France and the Franks conquered the Northern part.
The Church was plagued by two central heresies, promulgated by Cyril and Nestorius. St. Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from 412-444. Nestorius was patriarch of Constantinople. The heresies death with Christ's divinity and humanity.
Nestorius held that Christ was two natures: one human and one divine.
St. Cyril inhumanely burned a female philosopher and Alexandria was not troubled with philosophy anymore. Cyril held that Christ had only one nature.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 favored Cyril's view, partially because Cyril presided and the adherents of his view voted on the matter before Nestorius and his followers showed up. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic but did not recant and founded a Nestorian sect that became popular in Syria and the East. Nestorian beliefs were so popular in China that it almost became the established religion.
Monophysitism grew out of the orthodox view (that of Cyril's) which overemphasized the divine nature of Christ. It was condemned by Pope Leo at the Council of Chalcedon.
The Council of Ephesus declared that Christ was only one Person. The Council of Chalcedon declared Christ was one Person with two natures. But Monophysites still existed in Egypt after the council.
The heresies in Egypt and Syria led to their easier conquest by the Arabs as they were heavily persecuted by the Catholic Church.
There were four men of great importance in the 6th century:
1) Boethius
2) Justinian
3) Benedict
4) Gregory the Great
The Goths incorporated the Roman culture and preserved the Roman way of Life.
Boethius wrote The Consolations of Philosophy which was purely Platonic.
Boethius held that:
1) Happiness was blessedness and this was the good, not pleasure
2) Friendship was a most sacred thing
3) Platonic metaphysics
4) Stoic morality
5) The privative theory of Evil
Boethius was not superstitious or morbid like most men of his age and was not as obsessed with sin.
Justinian was the Eastern Emperor of Rom. He closed the schools of philosophy in Athens due to the Athenian paganism.
Justinian was very pious.
Justinian reconquered Italy and Africa but at the cost of both areas.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter V - The 5th and 6th Centuries
After Augustine died in 430 there was little philosophy.
The most important invaders of the Empire in the 5th century were the Goths. The Goths attacked the west. The huns attacked the East. The Ostrogoths ended the Western Empire in 476. The Vandals conquered Africa and Spain. The Visigoths conquered southern France and the Franks conquered the Northern part.
The Church was plagued by two central heresies, promulgated by Cyril and Nestorius. St. Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from 412-444. Nestorius was patriarch of Constantinople. The heresies death with Christ's divinity and humanity.
Nestorius held that Christ was two natures: one human and one divine.
St. Cyril inhumanely burned a female philosopher and Alexandria was not troubled with philosophy anymore. Cyril held that Christ had only one nature.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 favored Cyril's view, partially because Cyril presided and the adherents of his view voted on the matter before Nestorius and his followers showed up. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic but did not recant and founded a Nestorian sect that became popular in Syria and the East. Nestorian beliefs were so popular in China that it almost became the established religion.
Monophysitism grew out of the orthodox view (that of Cyril's) which overemphasized the divine nature of Christ. It was condemned by Pope Leo at the Council of Chalcedon.
The Council of Ephesus declared that Christ was only one Person. The Council of Chalcedon declared Christ was one Person with two natures. But Monophysites still existed in Egypt after the council.
The heresies in Egypt and Syria led to their easier conquest by the Arabs as they were heavily persecuted by the Catholic Church.
There were four men of great importance in the 6th century:
1) Boethius
2) Justinian
3) Benedict
4) Gregory the Great
The Goths incorporated the Roman culture and preserved the Roman way of Life.
Boethius wrote The Consolations of Philosophy which was purely Platonic.
Boethius held that:
1) Happiness was blessedness and this was the good, not pleasure
2) Friendship was a most sacred thing
3) Platonic metaphysics
4) Stoic morality
5) The privative theory of Evil
Boethius was not superstitious or morbid like most men of his age and was not as obsessed with sin.
Justinian was the Eastern Emperor of Rom. He closed the schools of philosophy in Athens due to the Athenian paganism.
Justinian was very pious.
Justinian reconquered Italy and Africa but at the cost of both areas.
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