The consolations of philosophy
Hi friends,
There's a book by the poet Adrienne Rich called Tonight No Poetry Will Serve. Maybe it's the tendency to utter quips like that that caused Plato to kick poets out of the Republic. Even if no poetry will serve, there is certainly still consolation to be found in philosophy.
The consolations of philosophy
Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in 523 while in prison awaiting execution. In it, Philosophy, personified as a woman, visits him in his prison cell and talks him down from his despair. She explains where true happiness is to be found. Not with fickle Fortune, who has abandoned him, but with constant Philosophy and virtue, which no one can take from him. It's a wonderful book, but I'm not mentioning to suggest this amazing work of early Christian Neoplatonism is the book for the moment. Nor do I mention it just because Boethius was an incredible badass who stuck to his principles, though he was!
I mention it because when I woke up on Wednesday and checked the news, I thought well, fuck, and what now? And very soon after that I also thought, how can I make sense of this? And how can I deal with what happens next? Then, very like Boethius, I took consolation in my philosophy, which is that knowledge is power. I always think, if only I knew a little bit more, I could surely figure this out. Or, if I could just understand it, maybe I could deal with it better. That kind of thinking can be a trap--it's how I get stuck reading low quality hot takes and other people's panic just to get some news. But there are some things I've read that helped, and so I'm going to suggest them. Read more...
Thanks for reading and see you on the internet!
AK