“Let us therefore raise ourselves, if it so be that we can, to that height of the loftiest intelligence.
“For there reason will see what it cannot of itself perceive, and that is to know how even such things as have uncertain results are perceived definitely and for certain by foreknowledge; and such foreknowledge will not be mere opinion, but rather the single and direct form of the highest knowledge unlimited by any finite bounds.”
—from Book 5, Prose 5
This has made me quite unpopular with my colleagues, but I maintain that most of modern philosophy, and its inevitable offshoot, post-modernism, have suffered from a crippling case of subjectivism. There is a deeply unhealthy form of turning inward, with nothing but doubt about the possibility of any greater meaning and purpose. It is the old error of Protagoras, come back around once again, where “man is the measure of all things.”
We could blame Descartes, or Hume, or Nietzsche, or Sartre, but behind it all is a deeper human weakness. It is to begin and to end only with the thoughts and feelings of the self, and thereby to reduce the true and the good only to the perspectives of the self. I immediately see red when people speak of “my truth” and “your truth”, as if the mind’s conformity to reality had nothing to do with it.
Even when my beloved Stoics stressed self-reliance, they did so within the greater context of Nature, that a man was in the service of Providence. You will be hard pressed to find such a principle expounded in most contemporary textbooks or classrooms, or, for that matter, in the trends of everyday life.
Once I look at the world through my own greatness, it will obviously be impossible to rise above myself to any higher standard of understanding or character. When Boethius here speaks of elevating our minds, of aiming for a broader perspective, he is not just engaged in an academic exercise. The success or failure of our lives, of our very happiness or misery, hinges upon working to apprehend the relationships within the whole, not the narrow scope of one part.
Trying to see ourselves as others see us is a start, and then trying to see ourselves as God sees us is the ultimate standard. Throughout the entire text of the Consolation, placing our lives within a wider and richer framework has been the key to peace of mind. It is now no different when it comes to finding a harmony between the certainty of God’s knowledge and the freedom of human choice.
If a man makes everything relative to himself, he is then closed off to ever transcending himself; he has built his own prison walls with his own two hands.
“For there reason will see what it cannot of itself perceive, and that is to know how even such things as have uncertain results are perceived definitely and for certain by foreknowledge; and such foreknowledge will not be mere opinion, but rather the single and direct form of the highest knowledge unlimited by any finite bounds.”
—from Book 5, Prose 5
This has made me quite unpopular with my colleagues, but I maintain that most of modern philosophy, and its inevitable offshoot, post-modernism, have suffered from a crippling case of subjectivism. There is a deeply unhealthy form of turning inward, with nothing but doubt about the possibility of any greater meaning and purpose. It is the old error of Protagoras, come back around once again, where “man is the measure of all things.”
We could blame Descartes, or Hume, or Nietzsche, or Sartre, but behind it all is a deeper human weakness. It is to begin and to end only with the thoughts and feelings of the self, and thereby to reduce the true and the good only to the perspectives of the self. I immediately see red when people speak of “my truth” and “your truth”, as if the mind’s conformity to reality had nothing to do with it.
Even when my beloved Stoics stressed self-reliance, they did so within the greater context of Nature, that a man was in the service of Providence. You will be hard pressed to find such a principle expounded in most contemporary textbooks or classrooms, or, for that matter, in the trends of everyday life.
Once I look at the world through my own greatness, it will obviously be impossible to rise above myself to any higher standard of understanding or character. When Boethius here speaks of elevating our minds, of aiming for a broader perspective, he is not just engaged in an academic exercise. The success or failure of our lives, of our very happiness or misery, hinges upon working to apprehend the relationships within the whole, not the narrow scope of one part.
Trying to see ourselves as others see us is a start, and then trying to see ourselves as God sees us is the ultimate standard. Throughout the entire text of the Consolation, placing our lives within a wider and richer framework has been the key to peace of mind. It is now no different when it comes to finding a harmony between the certainty of God’s knowledge and the freedom of human choice.
If a man makes everything relative to himself, he is then closed off to ever transcending himself; he has built his own prison walls with his own two hands.
Written in 2/2016
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