True Happiness In The Consolation Of Philosophy By Boethius

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The Consolation of Philosophy was written by a man named Boethius. Boethius was a orphan who was adopted by aristocratic family. Later in life he becomes a politician. Boethius tried to be an honest politician and he campaigned for policies such as lower taxes and just laws. This made him very unpopular with many of the politicians at the time who were very corrupt. These other politicians put Boethius in prison and sentenced him to death. It was at this point when Boethius is in prison that he writes The Consolation of Philosophy. In this piece if literature Boethius reflects back n his life in a conversation with Lady Philosophy and asks many questions. One of the biggest questions that Boethius asks is; what is the nature of true happiness? Boethius asks this question about true happiness because he thought that he once had happiness. He questions whether what he had was true happiness because he was able to lose it so quickly. The question of true happiness is a question that can be very difficult to answer. Boethius hopes to dispel the idea that fortune and true happiness are one…show more content…
Lady Philosophy thoroughly explains to Boethius where his ideas about true happiness inaccurate. Lady Philosophy tells Boethius that he is grieving because of his loss of good fortune. She tells him that Lady Fortune has tricked him into believing in a false sense of happiness that he inevitably lost.(Boethius 22) Lady Philosophy tells Boethius that “Change is [Fortune’s] normal behavior, her true nature”(23) This means that if you are relying on fortune for happiness then change is unavoidable and must be expected. Fortune is only temporary so it important to not make fortune your focus for happiness. In this way, Boethius was wrong in his previous way of thinking. He believed that his happiness came from fortune. This fortune, however, was just a false sense of happiness that he eventually
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