Episode 103: Boethius

NEW BONUS CONTENT CHANNEL (100 hours of stuff. Episodes on your favorite app. First week free, $9/month, cancel any time.) Bonus Content (Buy it the normal way): https://literatureandhistory.com/bonus-content Learn about how literature in vernacular languages began, and Latin lit ...  Show more

NEW BONUS CONTENT CHANNEL (100 hours of stuff. Episodes on your favorite app. First week free, $9/month, cancel any time.) Bonus Content (Buy it the normal way): https://literatureandhistory.com/bonus-content A retrospective on our podcast's enormous coverage of the Abrahamic rel ...  Show more

On this episode of the podcast, we learn about the medieval neoplatonist philosopher Boethius. We find out how he came to be wrongly convicted of treason and subsequently sentenced to death, and how this led him to write a philosophical text that solved one of the oldest problems ...  Show more

Boethius ushers in the medieval age with expert works on Aristotle, subtle treatises on theology, and the Consolation of Philosophy, written while he awaited execution. 

The Roman statesman Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy around the year 524 when he was incarcerated. It advises that fame and wealth are transitory and explores the nature of happiness and belief. Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has been wrestling with the w ...  Show more