...Philosophy, Book V presents the problem of freedom and God. Boethius refers to freedom as “freedom of the will” and God’s divine foreknowledge as “God’s Providence”. Boethius then presents a sequence of arguments that state that freedom of the will and divine Providence are incompatible. Boethius’s first proposition is, “If God knows the future, then the future is determined,” (PHL 150 Discussion, September 16, 2015). Thus, anything God’s foresees happening, must happen. Boethius is also trying to explain that God essentially foreknows the future eternally. Thus, God knows all the actions, wishes, and desires of mankind. Then his second proposition is that, “If the future is determined, then we don’t have free...
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...Further in Book I, Lady Philosophy questions Boethius about the good to which all things are directed. Boethius answers when he says “I answered that I knew all things came from God.” Because the intellect is ordered to knowing God who is a supernatural end, it is superior to temporal passions, which are ordered to temporal ends. However, thanks to the power of the intellect working in accord with the human will, man can use passions to bring about a spiritual good higher than their original end. This, at least, is the theoretical order of things. For, Lady Philosophy further mentions that man’s passions are disordered; they don’t work in accord with the intellect. This causes man to make decisions that are evil and against reason. As a result of this disordered relationship between the passions and the intellect, men begin to take partial, temporal goods such as, money, fame, power, and pleasure and make them the whole good. They fill their desire for the supreme good with lesser goods that are desired by the passions and are thus never satisfied. Lady Philosophy recognizes and makes efforts to explain this principle to Boethius lest he fail to recognize the origin of his despair. For Boethius despairs in the loss of his worldly possessions. “He is not yet ready to receive the higher truths Lady Philosophy has to offer. Nonetheless, it is critical that Boethius detaches from these worldly things; he cannot receive the higher truths without...
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...Boethius was an influential philosopher; poet; translator and Politian. While in prison Boethius wrote an influential book ‘The consolation of Philosophy’. Within this book it consists of a dialogue between Lady Philosophy and Boethius as characters discussing many topics such as; the problem of evil; the relationship between divine foreknowledge and human free will. Boethius had many discussions and views example of these are; the idea of divine foreknowledge; eternity the two types of necessity and to prove that God rewards and punishes justly. Boethius concept of God links to the idea of the Platonic God. God is not part of the temporal world and as a result of this; time does not pass for him as it does for us. This links in with Aquinas’s view of divine foreknowledge is different for us to God. This is a traditional concept of God who is wholly; simple; immutable and perfect. This can be argued to be a realistic view of God because the idea of change and perfection is questioned today therefore if God was in time this would mean God is not perfect as being able to change makes being lose what they once had. Firstly, in the Book ‘The consolation of philosophy’ Boethius argued that God knows the past; present and future. Boethius described this as God’s foreknowledge however; Boethius argued that although God has this foreknowledge he does not cause the future to happen. Boethius argues that God sees our timeline of our life as it is progressing in one timeline. Boethius...
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...for many assert that free will is incompatible with the divine knowledge. Roman philosopher Boethius directly tackles the issues between divine omniscience and free will in his work Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius argues that free will and divine omniscience are in fact compatible, even though it might not seem true at first glance. First, it is necessary to discuss what Boethius defines as the concept of being “free” or having “freedom”. Freedom is a state of being in which there is no requirement or predetermined outcome of what a...
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...limitations. Calvin states that ‘human beings are sinful and fallen. God who is omniscient wills the elect to be saved’ Supporters may view the idea of heaven and hell to not affect God’s omniscience or omnibenevolence. They may suggest that all these features are required for God to have and for humans to act accordingly to God’s commands. Boethius (480-525) highlights the incompatibility of eternity and foreknowledge by creating a dialogue between himself and Lady Philosophy in ‘The Consolidation of Philosophy’. Boethius suggests that the many problems include that if what God foresees in the future will inevitably happen then our actions may become irrelevant. If God does not cause our actions they are still necessary and we have no other choice. He suggests that it may be pointless to punish and reward if this is predestined, that if actions are foreseen by God then he is responsible and that prayer may be without point. The strength of Boethius’ idea is that he provides a solution for problems that he has recognised. Lady Philosophy states that all of time is what God would call ‘now’; God sees all things in an eternal present. Boethius also argued that God is outside of time and therefore cannot be subject to such things that are within time. Anthony Kenny provides a critical assessment of this. He argues that the idea of all time being eternally present to God does not make sense. It could be countered that this incoherency may only be because humans are not capable of understanding...
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...choosing to avoid the desires of the flesh in order to lead a life of purity and wisdom. His choices will then be rewarded by God as opposed to being punished for committing evil. While Boethius does not explicitly discuss the role of religion in The Consolation of Philosophy, it can be assumed that the choices he make are being judged by God and are rewarded and punished accordingly. Losing sight of what is good in life, he longs for his physical belongings and bemoans his loss of fortune, perplexed that terrible things like his arrest happen to good people like himself. However, Philosophy argues that his destruction is not fated; contrarily, he is responsible for his own misfortune and, “destructive passions torment them and by yielding they only aid in the slavery they have brought upon themselves” (page 119). While God is observing, it is up to humanity to make their own decisions and rewards or punishments will be received accordingly. Greed, especially, over material possessions is something Philosophy advocates against and becoming entranced with Lady Fortune and her “gifts” will lead to a life of punishment like Boethius. Even family, she mentions, is as artificial as the material possessions he yearns for; his heart is not as pure and good as he perceives it to be. At the end of the book, Boethius agrees with Philosophy that to lead a good life is to escape the grasp of Fortune and her manmade luxuries and indulge himself with knowledge and wisdom. Becoming a more knowledgeable...
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...While breaking with tradition on multiple matters of doctrine, he retained what we could basically described as a late-medieval conception of music . As a result, Luther continued to draw on at least some of the elements of Scholastic philosophy, as well as some of its pre-Christian sources. Crucial to this paper, we find recorded in the Table Talk how Luther made reference to music as one of the «prime matters ». Doing so, Luther reiterated a view held by many before him – including the like of Thomas Aquinas and Peter Lombard - and stretching back to Boethius . According to Boethius, prime matter was matter never shaped or formed by human action, but simply present in nature. In his Preface to the Symphoniae Iucundae – an introduction he wrote to a work by Georg Rhau – we find Luther expressing himself in terms consonant to Boethius’ positions: «if you examine the thing itself, you will find that music was impressed or created with every single creature one and all. For nothing is without sound, or sounding number, so that the very air […] in motion sounds and can be heard and even touched ». Something we can notice, is how this passage shows that Luther’s concept of music was deeply ontological, in the sense that to him music held a universal and objective significance well beyond its sensual qualities and manifestations . As we will below, Luther...
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...Al-Ghazali Reflection The section of Deliverance from Error in the readings of The Path to Sufism is very fascinating to me. The way Al- Ghazali speaks in his teachings is very different from that of Boethius and Aristotle. Al- Ghazali expresses his support for mathematics almost as an exact science, he shows that it cannot be used to support religions whether they be Islamic or not. This type of truth is called Apodeictic, which can be defined as truth by definition or necessity, which can also include logic, math and Astronomy. The other type of truth that Al- Ghazali speaks of is conjectural truth. This can be described as truth by speculation, which means that something can be assumed to be real, true, or genuine. An example of a conjectural truth can be Doctor’s advice. Both apodeictic and conjectural truths come from Al- Ghazali’s view of Philosophy, and can prove all of his thoughts true. One word that I found to be an important part of Al- Ghazali’s Deliverance from Error is the word Fitra. Fitra can be defined as a fundamental spiritual interest. Fitra has many different interpretations, some of which include creation, nature, natural disposition, constitution, and temperament. I believe that Fitra can be the driving spirit that directs people in the right path. I think that Fitra can relate to apodeictic truth because people believe what they see, and if they see something out of the ordinary that shouldn’t happen, they will not believe it and have to...
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...It is a way that they are able to worship, praise and devote themselves to their one true God. Christian music accompanies many events, church services and gatherings. Early Christian music was solely vocal music such as hymns however, it has evolved into a vocal and instrumental combo. Ancient Romans were known to have great access to a variety of musical styles as well as instruments. Many years ago, Christian music created problems causing instruments used to be unacceptable. Music theory was strongly influenced by a Christian philosopher known as, Boethius. "He theorized that the harmony of the universe and soul was underlaid by music" and harmony was based on the use of tones and chords. Music is a very powerful aspect of the Christian...
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...St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-‐1274) Biographical Note St. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 at the castle of Roccasecca in the Neapolitan territory. It is believed that the castle belonged to Aquinas’ father. Thomas Aquinas’ father was Count Landulf of an Italian family, however, his father did not come from the high power branch of the family but simply held the title. Aquinas’ mother was Countess Theodora of Theate, comes from the Rossi branch of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family, which is a noble Norman descent. Aquinas began his early education at age of five in the monastery of Monte Cassino. Later, Aquinas spent some time studying in Naples. Around 1243, Aquinas decided to join the Dominican order; however, his brothers brought him back to his parents on his way to Rome because his family is opposed to the Dominican order. Aquinas was held in the castle of S. Giovanni...
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...Revision - Philosopher’s and their views A.J Ayer weak verification, “mountains on the other side of the moon” Hick -eschatological verification “we’ll know at the end” -epistemic distance between us and God -Universal salvation -Replica theory -traducianism (soul inherited from parents) -Price’s mental world= consistent Price -“mental world” in which we live Karl Popper -falsification principle, true until proven otherwise Antony Flew -parable of the two gardeners, death of a thousand qualifications - historical evidence, tested experience -God could have made us free, but do the right thing R.M Hare -bliks, lunatics Basil Mitchell -resistance leader, rel people may accept points, but view won’t change Maimonedes -via negative avoids anthropomorphism of God! Scotus -analogy as a means of describing God= vague Aquinas -Analogy of attribution(good bread=good baker)/ analogy of proportion (it’s all relative) -God cant do “non actions” like 2+2=5 - God is timeless, REASON, we get his nature via revelation Tillich - symbols unlock things from God Bultmann -demythologising stories Wittgenstein -picture theory of language, language games James -physcology, empiricism,pluralism, pragmatism -passive, ineffable, noetic, transient -Philosopher/ Phychologist -rel exp has mental dimension, not just this -truth is in the results! Otto -Wholly Other Schliemacher -emotional experiences Buber -I thou relationship Feuerbach - God is man...
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...could acquire in the form of intellectual refinement so that they could make themselves accessible to their flocks. They chose to grow stupid in order to conquer. Augustine stated that “it was better to see oneself reproved by the grammarians rather than not understood by the people”. There were a few brilliantly learned men between the 5th and 8th century that K. Rand has called the ‘founders of the middle ages’. Their role was to rescue the essential part of ancient civilization, to collect it in a form in which it could be assimilated by medieval minds and to give it the necessary Christian clothing. Four of them stand head and shoulders above the others: - 1) Boethius(c.480-524)- The middle ages owed all that it was to know of Aristotle before the 12th century to him. The middle ages was also indebted to Boethius for giving an exceptional place in his culture to music. 2) Cassiodorus(c.480-573)-The men of the middle ages owed the literary schemas of the Latin rhetors, which he introduced into the Christian literature and pedagogy. 3) Isidore of Seville(c.560-636)- The most famous pedagogy of the middle ages was passed on through his Etymologiae. It consisted of the teaching programme of the seven liberal arts. 4)Bede(c.673-735)- He gave voice to the most complete expression of the multiplicity of meaning in the scriptures and to the theory of the four meanings on which the whole of medieval biblical exegesis was to be based. Feudal Art & Architecture The eighth and ninth centuries...
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...1. Augustine asked, “How can anyone suffer an unhappy life by the will, when absolutely no one wills to be unhappy?” How would the Consolation of Philosophy answer this question? a. How can anyone suffer an unhappy life by the will when absolutely no one wills to be unhappy? i. We found that it is by the will that human beings deserve and therefore receive either a happy or an unhappy life. ii. How can we claim that it is by the will that human beings achieve a happy life, when so many are unhappy despite the fact that everyone wills to be happy? iii. It is one thing to will rightly or wrongly, and quiet another to deserve something because of a good or bad will iv. Just because you will to be happy does not mean you are going to be happy v. No surprise that unhappy human beings do not attain the happy life that they will vi. So when we say that it is by the will that human beings are unhappy we don’t mean that they will to be unhappy, but that their will is in such a state that unhappiness must follow whether they will it or not. (On Free Choice of the Will, PAGE 23) b. How would the Consolation of Philosophy answer this question? vii. Book III is taken up with the proof of God’s existence viii. Based on the inadequacy of human desires to produce true happiness ix. Being capable of perfect happiness-in fact the source of that perfect happiness is innate and no human beings...
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...European’s Contributions to the Number system/Numerical system. This project also shows, you famous mathematicians, and more so sit back, read and enjoy this project. (1) History of European Mathematics During the centuries in which the Chinese, Indian and Islamic mathematicians had been in the ascendancy, Europe had fallen into the Dark Ages, in which science, mathematics and almost all intellectual endeavour stagnated. Scholastic scholars only valued studies in the humanities, such as philosophy and literature, and spent much of their energies quarrelling over subtle subjects in metaphysics and theology. From the 4th to 12th Centuries, European knowledge and study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music was limited mainly to Boethius’ translations of some of the works of ancient Greek masters such as Nicomachus and Euclid. All trade and calculation was made using the clumsy and inefficient Roman numeral system, and with an abacus based on Greek and Roman models. By the 12th Century, though, Europe, and particularly Italy, was beginning to trade with the East, and Eastern knowledge gradually began to spread to the West. Robert of Chester translated Al-Khwarizmi's important book on algebra into Latin in the 12th Century, and the complete text of Euclid's “Elements” was translated in various...
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...The genre of music is made up of many styles and forms that have been shared throughout cultures and traditions. Many styles have caught on quickly and are loved by many whereas others have been more controversial and caused differences among people. No matter what types of music one may listen to it is usually the beat and style that suits that person during that time in his or her life or the mood he or she are in at that moment. The melody and harmony interact to create a masterpiece for one’s ears. The development of music was probably drum related instruments that someone started hitting that made beats and when different objects were hit there were different sounds made. “These simplest of simple instruments are thought to have been used in religious ceremonies as representations of animals. There was no notation or writing of this kind of "music" and its sounds can only be extrapolated from the music of (South) American Indians and African natives who still adhere to some of the ancient religious practices” (Hollis, 2012). Darwin (1871) noted that the human musical faculty “must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed” (Masataka, 2007, p. 35-39). Music has developed and evolved from just a few beats to being one of the most enjoyed past times of all time. Music has evolved from prehistoric music, middle ages, the Renaissance to modern day. After the Renaissance period music developed more from styles other than composers who created...
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