Book 3 section 12 of Consolation of Philosophy is a transitional part.
We're wrapping up Book Three and looking forward to Book Four, which is going to be about
the problem of evil. And so Lady Philosophy continues with this theme about Platonic remembering,
and she's going to bring everything together in this section and set up the next section.
One of the first things she does is talk about the target of this entire discourse,
which is how the universe is governed. And she says at the top of page 99:
"You are on the verge of remembering what you said you did not know,
which is how the universe is governed." She then goes through a review of previous arguments.
and brings them to the point of asking the major question of Book Four.
So she runs through these on page 99, and says on page 100:
"God is goodness itself. So God orders all things for the good, in as much as he orders all things,
and he is good." She says this is "the tiller and the rudder by which the universe is preserved
and kept safe." This is the one fact you need to know and to remember; forgetting it,
everything looks like chaos and inspires despair. Remembering it, not even being imprisoned unjustly
is going to cause you distress, the way that Boethius has been feeling distress.
So we're on the verge of getting the consolation of philosophy, I think, in Boethius' case.
So she then continues putting the argument together and talking about the way in which
all things cooperate with God. All things are made by God, so they have a natural
principle in them that desires the good and that impels them toward the good.
At the bottom of page 100 she says: "In as much as God is correctly believed to order all
things at the helm of goodness and all those things on their own aspire toward that good
by their natural inclination,
can there be any question about their voluntary submission to God's rule and their obedience...?"
What's happening here? Two principles: one, God wills the good for every being.
But in creating beings God has implanted in them a principle that moves them on their own,
quite independent of God's action, toward the good. So that things voluntary cooperate with God's will to
bring them to the good. Their nature makes them do this as well as the will of God.
This is an important principle. The next part of this argument then is that nothing
can ultimately resist God's design for the good. Top of page 101: "There is nothing that in the
effort to remain true to its nature would want to try to oppose God." Anything that's being true to his nature,
truly what it is, what it naturally is meant to be, will not choose to resist God.
We can flip that around and say that anything that chooses to resist the good is rebelling against not only
God but also against its own inner nature, since its inner nature is designed to bring it toward,
closer to the good and closer to God. So "nothing would or could oppose the highest good."
Even if one wanted to oppose the good, one ultimately would not have the power to do so because
of the power of God, above one. So she says, "it is then the highest good
that rules things firmly but in a kindly way and orders them well." So things voluntarily cooperate.
This brings us up to the big question of Book Four. We're almost finished here, and yet there's going to be a
snag, because Lady Philosophy says on the following page: Evil is nothing.
And Boethius immediately raises all sorts of questions about this, he's not ready to accept this last truth.
She says on page 102: "There is nothing God can't do, being omnipotent. But God cannot do evil.
And therefore evil is nothing because God cannot do it and there's nothing he cannot do."
Boethius says, as we might say, "Is this a serious statement or are you playing logical games with me?"
I think there is a certain element of wordplay and fun in this way of stating the argument.
But behind this is a deeply serious point about the nature of evil.
This is going to occupy us for the remainder of the book, Book Four and I think even Book Five.
The question here is: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does evil go unpunished?
Why do the innocent suffer in this world? Lady Philosophy has just given us the answer.
It's because evil itself is not anything. It is chaos, it is lack of order,
it is being out of harmony with the plan for the good of things, that God has designed,
both in His will and in the nature of things. We're going to see in Book Four the answer given in a
more comprehensive way to that. Boethius kicks against this because he doesn't want to
accept this just yet, even at this point, as much progress as he's made,
this seems a little bit too much and too far. So it's going to take additional argument in Book Four,
which we're now set up for, to actually complete this insight in Boethius' mind.
That brings us to the end of section 12 and to the end of Book Three. I hope you found this review helpful.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.