Medieval Europe · c. 477–524 or 526
Boethius
Roman statesman who translated Aristotle’s logic into Latin
God’s foreknowledge does not destroy free will, because God is eternal and sees all times at once, as a present. He also posed the medieval problem of universals.
Life and thought
Boethius was a Roman aristocrat born around 477–480, a generation after the last western emperor. Orphaned young, he was raised in the household of the senator Symmachus, became consul in 510 and later chief of the palace offices under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Accused of treason, he was imprisoned and executed around 524 or 526.
He had planned to translate all of Plato and Aristotle into Latin and show that they agreed; he finished Aristotle’s logic, with commentaries, and for six centuries this was nearly all the Aristotle the Latin West had. His commentary on Porphyry posed the question that ran through medieval philosophy: are genera and species real things or only concepts? In prison he wrote the Consolation of Philosophy, in which Philosophy, as a woman, shows him that fortune’s gifts were never his, and that God’s foreknowledge does not destroy freedom, because God sees all times in one eternal present.
Works
Shaped by
384–322 BCEAristotlePlato’s student, Alexander’s tutor, founder of the Lyceumc. 234–305PorphyryBoethius’s commentaries on Porphyry’s Isagoge set the problem of universals for the Middle Ages.354–430Augustine of HippoNorth African bishop who fused Christianity with PlatonismShaped
1079–1142Peter AbelardParis logician famed for his dialectic and his love for Héloïse1225–1274Thomas AquinasDominican friar who wove Aristotle into Christian theologyMeanwhile, in other traditions
412–485ProclusHead of the Platonic school in Athens and Neoplatonism’s great systematiserc. 480–540DignāgaFounder of Buddhist logic and epistemologyc. 6th c. CEGauḍapādaEarliest known Advaita teacher, by tradition Śaṅkara’s teacher’s teacherOn the record
Boethius lived c. 480–524.
Reference works differ: the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives c. 480–524, the Stanford Encyclopedia c. 475–77 to probably 526. All agree that he wrote the Consolation of Philosophy in prison shortly before his execution under Theodoric. His two commentaries on Porphyry’s Isagoge are undated but belong to his translation project, much of which was done by about 518.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius” · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Boethius”