Philo to Boethius

Philo, extending Paul’s hybridization of Christianity and Greek philosophy, said God is Good, i.e., the Christian God is Plato’s Form (Idea) of the Good. A dubious but popular proposition, transforming both traditions into something much greater as a cultural and historical force than their respective parts would seem to merit.

Note to STUDENTS: Exam #1 is on Thursday. Bring your review questions today. We’ll also talk a bit about writing philosophical essays, due from all non-presenters next week.

[writing & thinking… writing philosophy…quotes…more…writers on writing…advice to writers]

The exam will take less than 30 minutes, so…

Midterm Report presentations also begin Thursday, with Brad (#10) and Andrew (#15) on the Beatles & Philosophy and Jasmine (#14) on the Atkins Diet, followed by Brandon (#10) on House, Patrick (#14) on the NFL (and chronic traumatic encephalopathy?), and Justin (#15) on Pink Floyd.

On deck: Taylor on Harry Potter, Nhu on Groundhog Day, Nick on Star Wars, Tabethia and Dalorian on Hip Hop (#10), Pete on Lord of the Rings, Warren on ?, Lanna on Dexter, Spurgeon on Calvinism (#14), and Lindsay on Radiohead (#15).

If more of you wish to sign up for presentations, you’ll need to let me know today. I’ll let you know who else might be working on your topic, for those wishing to consider a collaborative presentation.

We were talking about Stoics the other day. Did you note the post on Stoicism in Georgia? And on NPR last night, it was claimed that the father of our country was a Stoic and not, as commonly supposed, a Deist.

But moving on…

Origen noticed that Plato’s two worlds (intelligible & visible) resemble Christianity’s heaven & earth. He found this significant, but was also inclined to take both stories allegorically and not literally.

Plotinus thought Christianity was “an offensive, mythic little cult” and tried to improve it with his neo-Platonic emanations. His God was a lot like Aristotle’s:

“he had no personality, did not know of us, had not created the world,
took no interest in it, and would never judge it or anyone… It was Plotinus who made Plato and Aristotle seem religious.” (JMH)

It was also Plotinus who downgraded the status of matter, nature, and the human body as inferior by comparison with the higher stages of emanation. After him, Christianity cracked down on dissent. Free-thinking was not tolerated, and the Dark Ages commenced with the horrific murder, probably ordered by Cyril (later rewarded with Sainthood), of the great female Alexandrian philosopher, scientist, and mathematician Hypatia.

The library’s contemporary successor was better protected last month, when students made sure history would not repeat…

Boethius, favorite philosopher of Confederacy of Dunces‘ Ignatius J. Reilly, “recounts [in Consolation of Philosophy] in polished literary language, an imagined dialogue between the prisoner Boethius and a lady who personifies Philosophy.” [SEP… SQU] “It describes the plight of a just man in an unjust society. It is the very basis for medieval thought.”

She consoles his persecution at yet another Emperor’s bloodied hands. He was a Stoic’s stoic. Distressing, how they always seem to end up tragically dead. (Don’t confuse his Consolation with Alain de Botton’s Consolations.)

Let’s go ahead and look a couple of pages forward in the Osborne text (and a couple of posts backward, to Bart Ehrman‘s visit last Friday):

The name of Muhammad has come to symbolize, for many, an intransigent, inflexible, violent species of piety. For others it still evokes the humble merchant’s son’s message of humility and brotherhood. “Islam” and “Muslim” mean submission, and whatever the total truth about the historical Muhammad it’s clear that a religion centered on unqualified submission was always  bound to conflict with philosophy’s devotion  to freedom of thought and expression.  You can submit to inherited authority or you can question and challenge it. You can’t do both. [Muslim spirit, modesty… “Why I am not a ___”… holy books]

Yet, as Jennifer Hecht points out, there is a theological tradition shared by many Muslims–Kalam–  which holds that reason and logic should be used to show that God is beyond human understanding. But if reason and logic are the prime tools of human understanding, this is an unpromising and paradoxical approach.

More intriguingly:

among the early Muslims there were a few deeply independent scholars who doubted almost all the features of God that made him godlike, i.e., that God was good, that he made the universe, or that he cared about humanity. They were often referred to as atheists.

And they were, to say the least, shunned. Ostracized. Marginalized. Dealt with.

But that’s not the whole story. The Faylasufs (or Falsafahs) “held that the God of the Greek philosophers was identical to Allah… was reason itself.”

Once upon a time, for centuries in fact, “Muslim skeptic” was not an oxymoron. Nowadays, you’re more likely to encounter a former-Muslim skeptic like the pseudonymous Ibn Warraq. His namesake precursor Muhammad al-Warraq referred to God as an idiot,

because “He who orders his slave to do things that he knows him to be incapable of doing, then punishes him, is a fool.”

And:

“People developed the science of astronomy by gazing at the sky, and no prophet was necessary to show them how to gaze… We can know the world on our own.”

Tags: Boethius, Hypatia