Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy.

Philosophy is a woman.

  • yes
  • no
  • maybe
0 voters

Boethius: The consolation of philosophy.

I understand that without the translations of Boethius, the ancient pagan philosophers as well as Aristotle would have remained unknown to a vast majority. Also this book is an excellent intro to the problem of evil as well as a prelude to the free will/ divine foreknowledge debate.

What think ye?

i think the irony is that philosophy is a woman, to male philosophical scholars. diomata, afterall, delievers the speech in the symposium through socrates; socrates doesn’t say it.

for your info, biotheius is playing off a well-known myth by having philosophy be a woman in long robes. if my meemomey serves, the myth is that some greek guy had to choose between a young, sexy woman dressed provactively in few clothes (an appeal to the passions) vs an older, wiser woman dressed in heavy clothes that conceal her body (an appeal to the intellect).

more interesting is that by having philosophy as a woman, it lends itself to the idea that philosophy is a medicine, philosophy is a nurse to bring bio back to health. this has more interesting application – suggests that we are naturally meant to be these enlightened intellects, and this state is not something we creat but fall into naturally.

I think women are more sexist than men.

I don’t like any of the answers, but I marked ‘maybe’.

Personally, I don’t think knowledge should ever be assigned a gender.

As for Boethius, I really never heard of him until now. Looking over his biography, he seemed very influential…but by chance. I haven’t read much of his work, though. I’ll take your word on the free will issue. It’s dryer reading that Neitszche.

I hate to go off on a tangent like this, but, what makes you think this? I agree that misandry is more acceptable, but from personal experience, each gender seems to be as sexist as the other.

I dont think it. I find it to be an ironic statement because by saying that, I’m also being sexist.

I do, however, have issues with people not accepting that women’s gender roles are malleable, whereas men are not so much.

Feminism gone awry. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of feeling guilty for being a man.

Trix stated:

I tend to agree. Most philosophy is very phallocentric. Some of the statistics that i have seen tend to confirm this, almost 90% of the people in philosophy majors are men. Simone De Beauvoir said something like, “Ojectivism is male subjectivism.” I look forward to more female philosophers, after all approximately half the human race is comprised of women. incidentally, according to this source, January 9th is the birthday of Simone De Beauvoir.

marshall wrote:

yeah, while i also believe this, i am also quiet certain that there is no reason why this is (or should be) unacceptable. i find it rather absurd to think that half the population (whichever gender it may be) should renounce whatever biological/sociological/pyschological views they hold, simply to creat a ‘neutral’ environment. it’s hard for me to imagine a society existing very long if such a state where achieved – we need gender roles to survive, as a civilization.

but, i think the more interesting question is that if philosophy should be a pursuit of knowledge unimpared by such pesky googles like gender, culture, paradigms, then is it right to have such a phallocentric discipline? i think that time has proven there is absolutly no way this can be escaped and perhaps we should accept this. and by we perhaps i just mean me. i was absolutly shocked at how male dominated philosophy is today, and i go to a very open campus. my friend is in engineering, and we joke that before we go to class we have to put our balls on.

but also, i think things might change. i think this current generation is the first totall ‘free’ generation where gender is smeared and roles less rigid. it will be interesting to see if the future objectivism is still male subjectivism.

p.s. marshall, how’s the book?

I finished it a few weeks back. I had never read it before. A lot of it reads like stoicism (somewhat like epictetus’ enchiridion). And the justice theme runs through it extremely well, one learns to love virtue for it’s own sake and not for being recognized for it.

I don’t think men should cease to be ‘phallocentric’ in order to maintain neutrality like you say. I just think that philosophy would be better if more women were in it’s ranks, competition produces results, Nietzsche said, “…Be at war with your neighbors and yourselves…”. So many great philosophical systems have evolved due to conflict. The empiricists vs. the rationalists, etc. One more viewpoint would definitely provide food for thought especially in the most general of disciplines.

so? what’s your view on the great question of the book – does philosophy successfull console the prisoner, bioethius? that was the great essay question when i had to study it last year. i had to answer no; by the end of book 5, philosophy keeps trying to engage in a debate about the path to knowledge, but the prisoner forces her into talking about free will. ultimatly she gives up, and proceeds to sing a song (if i recall correctly). at any rate, the impression one receives is that the prisoner missed the point entirely, the pursuit of free will inhibited him from realizing higher goals. what impact do you see this having on bioethius’ philosophy?

ps. you were right to pick up the elements of stoicism, bioethius bridges stoicism to christianity, will be adopted by church later

WHAT is woman and what is man? biological differences? how are we differentin any way else? gender streotypes. you who reads sartre should know that human beings have no pre fixed essences. simone de beaver would stone you to death.

bah bah bah.

de beaver? you naughty, naughty girl!

Trix, if you already know this i apologize for the useless instruction, but beaver was Jean Paul Sartre’s nickname for his main squeeze Simone De Beauvoir, most likely though you were just being humorous like you were in the masterbation (sic!) thread, talking about Metavoid.

I think that it’s just trix’s turn to make a foray into homo-eroticism.

it is not. but while on the topic, i was hoping marshall we could clarify your custom greeting to new memebers. specifically, why is it that hdv/vd has a bunch of marshmellows? does he have an uncanny ability to reach down into his sack and produce a large amount of sticky white stuff? why have we foresaken the beloved defamation of heraclitus’ quote? :confused:

Heraclitus is said to have said to visitors coming into his kitchen, “Come in, the Gods are here also.” (attributed to be said by him, not written by him, God i’ll never make that mistake in front of the incorrigible Trix again :wink: )

I have come to realize that maybe not all new members will be familiar with Heraclitus and these words which were attributed to him. The new greeting will appeal to a wider audience, marketing i guess. It’s important to make new members feel at home.

incidentally, according to dictionary.com, marshmallow (not marshmellow [sic!]) is also slang for A timid, cowardly, or ineffective person.

I would offer them a Labatts beer, Trix. Unfortunately the medium doesn’t allow for that, Marshmallows however, can be ‘compressed’ (using marshmallow compression software) and the extra air in them means that they can be compressed into small ‘packets’ and sent anywhere over the internet. :astonished: :unamused: :imp:

oh please. as if i ever spell anything right.

also, i’m glad to hear that you like to compress hvd/hdv’s marshmellows. that’s sweet.

seriously, though, i would perfere the beer.