Are You Sure You're Not Something More? | The Consolation of Philosophy Essay 1
We're Reading Boethius's the Consolation of Philosophy In the Next 5 Weeks. Come Join us!
Welcome to the Parker’s Ponderings read-along of The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. This is one of the most influential philosophy books in the entire Western canon. It’s a short read, in that the Penguin Classics edition is only ~134 pages, but it is philosophically dense—it’s chock-full of rich and deep philosophy, philosophical puzzles, existential questions, and theological insight. I was considering reading through it at a quicker pace since we read through Dune in just 6 weeks but each chapter (book) of the Consolation has at least a week’s worth of ponderables for us.
So, we'll do 1 chapter a week for 5 weeks and I’ll share a companion essay each week starting today. If you’re behind, no worries, you can catch up quick. We’re reading the Penguin edition, you can grab that here, but if you have a different edition then use whatever you have. Below is the read-along schedule. I will release the companion essays on the following schedule. That doesn’t mean you have to have the reading done by that date though. Say you haven’t read book 1 yet. You have from now until August 6th to read book 1 and my companion essay for it to stay current. But the reading should go fairly quick for you—it’s the concepts and arguments that’ll get cha! Boethius is deep.
All the read-along essays are free to read but the 2 Zoom call book club sessions are for paid subscribers, so make sure you upgrade to a paid subscription if you want in on our live discussions or want access to the recordings of those sessions.
Reading/Companion Essay Schedule
July 30th - Essay on Ch. 1
Aug 6th - Essay on Ch. 2
Aug 13th - Essay on Ch. 3
August 16th (Saturday) @ 4pm central time - Book Club Zoom Call 1
Aug 20th - Essay on Ch. 4
Aug 27th - Essay on Ch. 5
August 30th (Saturday) @ 4 pm central time - Book Club Zoom call 2
Okay, let’s jump in with Companion Essay #1 but be forewarned, this will be long! I have to do a little introduction to Boethius and his project. None of the other 4 companion essays will be nearly so long, I (fingers crossed) promise.