Boethius Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Boethius’un Felsefenin Tesellisi Adlı Eserinde Tanrısal Öngörü, Kader Ve Zaman İlişkisi The Relation Between Divine Providence, Fate and Time in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy Özet Boethius’un Felsefenin Tesellisi (Consolatio... more

Programma dettagliato e abstract delle relazioni che saranno presentate nella sessione "Cultura classica e cultura medievale in Dante: aspetti letterari e iconografici", nell'ambito del XX congresso annuale dell'ADI. Coordina Giuseppe... more

Programma dettagliato e abstract delle relazioni che saranno presentate nella sessione "Cultura classica e cultura medievale in Dante: aspetti letterari e iconografici", nell'ambito del XX congresso annuale dell'ADI.
Coordina Giuseppe Ledda, Interviene Stefano Carrai, Relazioni di Paola Nasti, Anna Pegoretti, Giulia Gaimari, Leyla Livraghi, Nicolò Maldina, Alessandra Forte, Veronica Albi.

The feast day of St. Cecilia has assumed a prominent place on the calendars of many a musician throughout the Christian world, as a matter of devotion and an opportunity for artistic celebration. In London, a series of fortuitous events... more

The feast day of St. Cecilia has assumed a prominent place on the calendars of many a musician throughout the Christian world, as a matter of devotion and an opportunity for artistic celebration. In London, a series of fortuitous events gave rise to a brief but significant series of festivals in Cecilia’s honor, which enabled collaborations among the great composers and poets of the day. No work composed for these festivals has captured the imagination of its admirers like John Dryden's 1687 ode, "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day." This essay is a brief introduction to the historical, political, and philosophical underpinnings of this work, and a lyrical analysis of four significant settings by Giovanni Battista Draghi (c.1640–1708), George Frederic Händel (1685–1759), Norman Dello Joio (1913–2008), and Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006).

The term quadrivium refers to the study of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. The Pythagoreans referred to the study of number which are Arithmetic (Number in itself), Music (Number in time), Geometry (Number in space) and... more

The term quadrivium refers to the study of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. The Pythagoreans referred to the study of number which are Arithmetic (Number in itself), Music (Number in time), Geometry (Number in space) and Astronomy (Number in space and time). This paper presents the quadrivium as the foundation of a multidisciplinary approach to teaching basic mathematics. Through a brief but in-depth examination of two phenomena, the √2 geometric progression (a spatial sequence), and the musical overtone series (a temporal sequence) are presented in this paper. This paper presents a new relationship between number, geometry and music. While each is rather commonly known within the context of their separate disciplines, it is when combined that a remarkable relationship is uncovered.

PART I PRAYER (has only one question) Using the following from my " Ratio, Preces, Intuitus: Prayer's Mediation in Boethius' Consolation " [posted both on the Brightspace and Academia.edu] to outline what must be considered, explain the... more

PART I PRAYER (has only one question) Using the following from my " Ratio, Preces, Intuitus: Prayer's Mediation in Boethius' Consolation " [posted both on the Brightspace and Academia.edu] to outline what must be considered, explain the nature (or natures), role (or roles), and purpose (or purposes) of prayer in in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.

Objections to the traditional view that God knows all of time eternally stand or fall on what one means by “eternally.” The widely held supposition, shared by both eternalists and those who oppose them, such as Open Theists, is that to... more

Objections to the traditional view that God knows all of time eternally stand or fall on what one means by “eternally.” The widely held supposition, shared by both eternalists and those who oppose them, such as Open Theists, is that to say God knows all of time eternally entails that he cannot know all of time from a temporal perspective. In this paper I show that Boethius’s characterization of God’s eternal knowledge employs a different meaning of “eternal,” which is incompatible with this supposition. I argue that Boethius’s claim that “the most excellent knowledge is that which by its own nature knows not only its own proper object but also the objects of all lower kinds of knowledge” entails that God is not limited by perspective and so eternally and simultaneously knows every temporal event from a temporal as well as a timeless perspective.

Tradução do comentario tomista ao "De Hebdomadibus" de Boécio.

This introductory paper provides supportive evidence that the Shakespeare plays were written during periods of profound harmony when the Divine or Infinite Mind resonated with that of the author to be born in him as the "fair youth" and... more

This introductory paper provides supportive evidence that the Shakespeare plays were written during periods of profound harmony when the Divine or Infinite Mind resonated with that of the author to be born in him as the "fair youth" and "the better part of me" of the Sonnets, as originally proposed by R. M. Bucke. Several of the Sonnets are explicitly supportive of this interpretation and are mentioned here. According to Poet Laureate of the time John Dryden: "Shakespeare was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature. He looked inwards and found her there." Shakespeare Sonnet 8 is shown here to refer poetically to the harmonic or overtone series in music and mathematics investigated by Pythagoras and surely known to the Shakespeare author, along with Boethius's theory of the music of the spheres. Superstring theory "speaks" the same musical language. Resonance and a holographic universe may be the key to understanding Nature and her human offspring. Such correspondences give us the opportunity to appreciate another formulation of physical reality that is as mathematically valid as our familiar 3D, space-time universe. Actuality, where the universe's real physical processes take place, is then seen to be on a distant 2D surface like a hologram. If we follow Shakespeare's example and enter into the universal rhythm of Life, we may also "[find] her there." Shakespeare en harmonie avec la nature et avec le rythme universel de la vie-Naissance de « La Belle Jeunesse » des Sonnets par Christopher Eriksson, PhD Résumé Cet article fournit la preuve, par le biais de références étayées, que les oeuvres théâtrales de Shakespeare ont été écrites au cours de périodes d'harmonie profonde où l'Esprit Divin, Infini, résonnait avec celui du poète, faisant naître en lui la « Belle Jeunesse » et « le meilleur de moi » des Sonnets, ainsi que l'a, pour la première fois, proposé le psychiatre canadien du XIXe siècle Richard Maurice Bucke. De nombreux Sonnets, mentionnés dans cet article, sont explicitement favorables à cette interprétation. Selon le « poète lauréat » John Dryden (1631-1700), « Shakespeare apprenait instinctivement, il n'avait pas besoin de lire des livres pour comprendre la nature. Il tournait son regard vers son for intérieur et la découvrait ». L'article démontre que le Sonnet 8 se réfère à la série harmonique, en musique et dans les mathématiques, étudiée par Pythagore et que Shakespeare certainement connaissait, ainsi qu'à la théorie de Boèce sur la « musique des sphères ». La « théorie des supercordes » « parle » le même langage musical. La résonance et un univers holographique peuvent être la clé pour comprendre la nature et sa

"On the Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius (d. 524) was arguably the second most widely read book of the Middle Ages after the Bible. This two-volume study brings together for the first time all the surviving medieval musical... more

"On the Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius (d. 524) was arguably the second most widely read book of the Middle Ages after the Bible. This two-volume study brings together for the first time all the surviving medieval musical notations added to the poetic portions of the work, which survive in manuscripts dating from the ninth through to the eleventh centuries. The first volume comprises a detailed study of the sources, the development of new analytical techniques for assessing a musical tradition handed down largely in neumatic notation, a study of the melodic transmission and an account of historical context. The second volume contains plates, transcriptions and commentaries for all the surviving notations presented first singly and then in comparative tables. This comprehensive study is both an invaluable resource for performers and scholars interested in reconstructing an overlooked melodic tradition and a substantial contribution to understanding early medieval Latin song.

In these essays Peter Dronke looks at some of the relations between sacred and profane ideas and images, and Christian and pagan motifs, particularly in the early Middle Ages. The first two parts of the book dwell on aspects of (in the... more

In these essays Peter Dronke looks at some of the relations between sacred and profane ideas and images, and Christian and pagan motifs, particularly in the early Middle Ages. The first two parts of the book dwell on aspects of (in the widest sense) Christian Platonism, the one part focussing on themes, the other on some of the greatest thinkers in the Latin world, from Boethius in the sixth century to Thierry of Chartres in the twelfth. The emphasis throughout is on transformations and syncretisms far more than disjunctions. The final group of essays is concerned with poetic texts, Latin and vernacular, in which non-sacred elements make their way into the sacred, the biblical and the saintly realms. A brief Epilogue glances at early medieval profane poetry outside as well as within Europe.

The Musica speculativa of Jean des Murs played a key role in renewing interest in the teaching of Boethius in the fourteenth century. We argue that this treatise is much more than a summary of the Boethian De institutione musica in... more

The Musica speculativa of Jean des Murs played a key role in renewing interest in the teaching of Boethius in the fourteenth century. We argue that this treatise is much more than a summary of the Boethian De institutione musica in presenting its core teachings as fully consistent within an Aristotelian theory of knowledge. Two versions of its prologue (1323 and 1325 respectively) are examined together with their relationship to Jean’s Notitia artis musicae (1321) and the innovative significance of its mathematical-style presentation of the teaching of Boethius about proportions with its appeal to clear diagrams. We aim to guide the modern reader through the thought patterns and diagrams of Jean des Murs, demonstrating why the Musica speculativa was so widely studied in the later Middle Ages. The two different prologues are presented in English translation for the first time.

An analysis of the life of Tiresias in Bernat Metge’s The Dream (bk III) against the background of the mytographic tradition shows that Metge shrewdly crafted his first-person narrative so that his alter ego Bernat was convinced that... more

An analysis of the life of Tiresias in Bernat Metge’s The Dream (bk III) against the background of the mytographic tradition shows that Metge shrewdly crafted his first-person narrative so that his alter ego Bernat was convinced that Tiresias, the ancient Theban clairvoyant, performed the role of spiritual healer —a healer capable of curing Bernat’s affection for love and wordly concerns. Although Metge certainly borrowed the life of Tiresias from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (probably with the addition of medieval glosses), the underlying intention of his account is indebted to the mytographic tradition. In accordance with Metge’s moral ambiguity (“de natura d’anguila”, ‘as sleepery as an eel’), in The Dream Tiresias is endowed with a two-fold personality (bk III-IV). While he condemns women and the ways of the world (and such discourse is termed as ‘true knowledge’ and not ‘opinion’), he behaves as a rude, ill-tempered man, who lacks in courtly manners. His immoderate behaviour contradicts his own teachings and may incline the reader to disagree with his moral stance. This contradiction accounts for the debate between Bernat and Tiresias (bk III-IV).

Convergences between Platonism and the Abrahamic Religions Parts 3, 4 & 5 Adapted for the De Li Non Aliud Reading Group 2021 Perspectives and Directions: Light illuminates but blinds eyes accustomed to darkness. Darkness defeats eyes... more

Convergences between Platonism and the Abrahamic Religions Parts 3, 4 & 5 Adapted for the De Li Non Aliud Reading Group 2021
Perspectives and Directions:
Light illuminates but blinds eyes accustomed to darkness. Darkness defeats eyes used to light but strengthens weak ones. The invisible enables visibility. That by which we see must be unseen—otherwise we would see only it.
This Powerpoint has been modified by additions to the texts from Plato and by adding material on and from Parmenides’ The Way of Truth and Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy. Much has been deleted. The intention of additions and deletions is to give a greater number of the kinds of knowing in the Platonic tradition in order to assist your analysis, to bring out the kinds and functions of not knowing, and to emphasise the roles of not knowing and nothingness in philosophy, theology, and religion.
Plato is not perfectly consistent in describing the kinds of knowing and not knowing. In consequence reconciling his own texts with one another, and then extending the schema to include subsequent thinkers like Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Proclus, Bonaventure, and Cusa requires making difficult judgments.
If Fr Festugière is right, and I think he is, in the Platonic tradition not knowing goes together with knowing for at least two reasons. One is that knowing is also ignorance and alternates with ignorance. Another is that something other than knowing is operative: the desires or love for beauty, and the desires or love for the good beyond beauty, and union beyond good are also present. Alternatively or simultaneously there may be suffering in the sense of affectivity. The one who ascends is struck by or possessed by what is given. Dionysius writes of this pathos.

Magister Jacobus (c.1260 - c.1340) had as his purpose the revaluation of the "musica speculativa" tradition in the 14th century. In his treatise "Speculum Musicae", he aimed to demonstrate how it could remain pertinent even when inserted... more

Magister Jacobus (c.1260 - c.1340) had as his purpose the revaluation of the "musica speculativa" tradition in the 14th century. In his treatise "Speculum Musicae", he aimed to demonstrate how it could remain pertinent even when inserted into the Aristotelian and Thomist scholastic framework (associated with the thirteenth century). Magister Jacobus – in full congruence with the "liberal arts" pedagogical program and the " Itinerary of the Mind into God" program present in the philosophical and theological speculation of the Middle Ages – considered the study of speculative music as an epistemological tool through which man could be introduced to the study of Philosophy and Theology. In this way, the mind could be led from the mirror of sensible things (including the "mirror of music") to the contemplation of invisible things, and above all to the contemplation of God.

An introduction to Middle English Literature, including: discussion of the historical context from Anglo-Norman period to the 14th Century, the development of the Middle English language, the medieval synthesis of Judeo-Christian faith... more

An introduction to Middle English Literature, including: discussion of the historical context from Anglo-Norman period to the 14th Century, the development of the Middle English language, the medieval synthesis of Judeo-Christian faith and classical philosophy, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, and an analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Truth" as representative of the medieval worldview.

It is not anachronistic to talk about the Self in medieval philosophy, but it is often a self without subjectivity. I look Boethius on the self as an ideal; Eriugena and the unknowable self; how Anselm avoids Augustinian ideas of... more

It is not anachronistic to talk about the Self in medieval philosophy, but it is often a self without subjectivity. I look Boethius on the self as an ideal; Eriugena and the unknowable self; how Anselm avoids Augustinian ideas of self-knowledge; the extinction of the Avicennian self in Ibn Tufayl; and Aquinas's idea of self-knowledge without the self (in which I discuss some recent work by Therese Cory and Alain de Libera).

In 1887, Paul Tannery suggested that some ancient Pythagoreans defended a form of atomism against which Eleatic philosophers such as Zeno of Elea reacted. Later, Democritus and Leucippus on one hand, Plato on the other, developed... more

In 1887, Paul Tannery suggested that some ancient Pythagoreans defended a form of atomism against which Eleatic philosophers such as Zeno of Elea reacted. Later, Democritus and Leucippus on one hand, Plato on the other, developed atomistic intuitions in reaction to this old debate. No one would accept nowadays Tannery’s historical claim, but the philosophical content of his interpretation is still relevant for the history of atomism, especially for the Middle Ages. Indeed, according to Tannery the Pythagoreans defined atoms as points, i.e. the equivalent of units for numbers but with a position in space. This conception of a point was well known in the Middle Ages thanks to Boethius’ adaptation of Nicomachus of Gerasa’s Institutio arithmetica and other indirect sources (Macrobius, Martianus Capella, for instance) and was accepted by several philosophers and theologians. In this paper we try to follow the reception of this
concept from the 12th to the 14th century.

A smaller version of this paper was published as “Conversion: Ontological & Secular from Plato to Tom Jones”, Numero Cinq, V: 7, July 2014 and is posted elsewhere on Academia.edu. Its aim is to present some features of conversion as... more

A smaller version of this paper was published as “Conversion: Ontological & Secular from Plato to Tom Jones”, Numero Cinq, V: 7, July 2014 and is posted elsewhere on Academia.edu. Its aim is to present some features of conversion as represented over about twenty-five hundred years in the pagan and Christian west in a way which may prove illumining because not expected. Rather than looking at conversion as primarily a religious phenomenon, though not leaving this out, I shall mainly present it as psychic, ontological, and secular. Moreover, although these three aspects can be seen together at almost every point, in order to bring out differences, I shall stress the psychological through Plato’s dialogues, the ontological through Neoplatonic – Peripatetic systems, and the secular through 18th and early 19th century novels of Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Jane Austen. The elements touched on from Plato and his Late Ancient and Medieval successors will largely be determined by what is modified or suppressed by our cast of English novelists.
The major section on Jane Austen's novels is entitled "Secularization Completed and the Beginnings of a Critique." They are not the loss of conversion in the Christian Platonist tradition but rather such a complete passage into the processes of social and individual life, i.e. secularization, that religious forms need not be represented along side them. Jane Austen is a modern Sophocles in his difference from Euripides and Aeschylus. Indeed, there is a sense in which her novels are the deepest treatments of conversion in the genre.

Estudio sobre la proposición categórica asertórica, las inferencias inmediatas y el silogismo categórico. Texto fundamental para la historia de la lógica. Tan vigente hoy como cuando fue escrito. Con abundantes notas del traductor.... more

Estudio sobre la proposición categórica asertórica, las inferencias inmediatas y el silogismo categórico. Texto fundamental para la historia de la lógica. Tan vigente hoy como cuando fue escrito. Con abundantes notas del traductor.
Study on categorical assertoric proposition, immediate inferences and categorical syllogism. Fundamental text in history of Logic. Enriched with notes by the translator.

In several versions of " Introduction to Aristotle's Categories " (" The Isagoge ") we find very intriguing diagram of the "Tree of Porphyry". This diagram is closely linked with the square of opposition (logical square), natural tree... more

In several versions of " Introduction to Aristotle's Categories " (" The Isagoge ") we find very intriguing diagram of the "Tree of Porphyry". This diagram is closely linked with the square of opposition (logical square), natural tree with vegetative ornaments and the anthropomorphic figure. Porphyry took over Aristotle's division into five predicables (quinque praedicabilia) and defined them through five classes (species, genus, differentia, propria, accidentia) and from them he created scala praedicamentalis (Arbor Porphyriana). The Neoplatonic-Aristotelianism of Porphyry influenced the return of interest in Aristotle's logic in the Middle Ages through translations of Boethius and Al-Farabi. Their works of logic were the basis for the study of many topics, especially those related to theology. Later diagrams with the natural tree and human figure (syndesmos) are found in the 13th century in "Tractatus" (" Summulae Logicales ") written by Peter of Spain under different names such as: Tree of Love, Tree of Life, Tree of Science, Tree of Knowledge etc. Christian mysticism (Mystical theology), Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) was deeply influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy and within these mystical traditions we find different variations of the diagram aswell. Under the influence of the concept of Neoplatonic procession and reversion, mystic should be simultaneously involved in both Cataphatic and Apophatic theology to truly understand God. In other words, a spiritual person has to oscillate between affirming claims about the Tree of Life (the Being) and negation of those same claims to be able to have real knowledge of God.

It has become a commonplace to say that the Latin Fathers did not really hold a doctrine of deification. Indeed, it is often asserted that Western theologians have neglected this teaching, that their occasional references to it are... more