The Consolation of Philosophy · Chapter
Song III: Truth's Paradoxes explained
Boethius reflects on the discordance between truths that seem contradictory, questioning whether the fault lies in truth itself or in the mind's blindness due to fleshly limitations.
What happens
Boethius reflects on the discordance between truths that seem contradictory, questioning whether the fault lies in truth itself or in the mind's blindness due to fleshly limitations. He explores the paradox of seeking truth: if one already knows it, seeking is unnecessary; if one does not know it, how can one recognize or pursue it? He concludes that the soul retains a partial memory of its former knowledge, enabling it to strive for the whole.
Themes in this chapter
Philosophy as Healing
The poem explores the mind's blindness and the soul's partial knowledge, suggesting that philosophical inquiry can restore understanding.
Providence and Fate
The discordance between truths and the search for hidden order touches on the divine ordering of knowledge and fate.
Characters to notice
- Boethius
The speaker who laments the discordance between truths and ponders the soul's struggle to discern truth through fleshly blindness.
Key passages
“Why does a strange discordance break / The ordered scheme's fair harmony?”
Why does a troubling inconsistency disrupt the beautiful order of the universe?
Boethius questions the apparent contradiction in truths.
“For neither does he know in full, / Nor is he reft of knowledge quite; / But, holding still to what is left, / He gropes in the uncertain light, / And by the part that still survives / To win back all he bravely strives.”
The seeker of truth neither knows everything nor is completely ignorant; he clings to what he remembers and strives to recover the whole.
Boethius describes the soul's partial recollection and its effort to regain full knowledge.