gmgauthier.com/content/podcast/boethius-book-2-chapter-8-The-Utility-of-Adversity.md

title	date	series	image	enclosure	draft
Book 2 Chapter 8: The Utility of Adversity	2020-07-12T21:43:00Z	The Consolation of Philosophy	img/1295493-1593380802865-ef6c3fc410551.jpg	audio/podcast_2020-06-28_boethius-book-2-chapter-8.mp3	false

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One service only can Fortune do, when she reveals her own nature and distinguishes true friends from false. Philosophy explains the utility of adversity to virtue, and regales us with a paean to divine love. Analysis: Boethius evokes a frustrated aspiration to reconcile Aristotle and Plato, and we begin the transition from Aristotelian virtue, to the Neoplatonic contemplation of The Good. I summarize The Myth of Er, from Plato’s Republic, and read a short quote from it, emphasizing the need for the contemplation of knowledge.