Boethius’ works have had a tremendous influence on subsequent generations of philosophers, humanists, and poets in the medieval West.
Boethius’ commentaries and handbooks provided the foundations of the liberal arts curriculum in the medieval West. His handbooks on arithmetic and music were studied with keen interest continuously and well into the fifteenth century (White in Gibson 1981). Boethius’ commentaries on the Aristotelian logical corpus as well as his logical handbooks provided not only the foundations of medieval logic, but also medieval philosophy of language. In particular, the semantic theory that Boethius sketches in his greater commentary on Aristotle’s On Interpretation greatly influenced the development of the philosophy of language and mind in the Middle Ages. Even after the recovery of Aristotle’s Analytics, Topics, and Sophistical Refutations, two of Boethius’ logical handbooks, On Division and On Topical Differences, continued to be studied for some time afterward in the western universities (Lewry, in Gibson 1981).
Boethius also played a decisive role in the development of metaphysics in the early medieval centuries. Boethius’ commentaries on the Organon and his theological treatises provided the concepts and principles needed to develop accounts of, for example, identity and difference, individuation, and the ontological status of universals.
Boethius’ remarks on individuation provide a good example of the nature of his influence on medieval metaphysics. In his commentaries and theological treatises, Boethius hinted at four distinct theories of individuation. The first suggestion was that individuation is caused by all (or some specific set of) the thing’s accidental forms (Opusc. I, 1, 56-63; In Isag. 2nd edn. III, 11, 235-236). The second suggestion was that individuation occurs when forms occupy different locations at the same time (also Opusc. I, 1, 56-63). Thirdly, Boethius suggested that individuation is due to matter (Opusc. I, 2, 102-110; cf. Opusc. V, 3, 213-220). And finally, Boethius suggested that a special form individuates things. Plato and Socrates are both human beings in virtue of a substantial form of humanity, but Plato has a formal component, ‘‘Platonity,’’ that no other thing has, and Socrates has ‘‘Socrateity’’ (in De int. 2nd edn, 136-139). Boethius only hinted at these theories of individuation, he never gave a fully developed theory of individuals or individuation. However, the scattered remarks on individuals found in Boethius’ works were picked up and developed into fully formed theories by subsequent generations of medieval philosophers (Gracia 1984; King 2004).
Boethius’ Opuscula did not find a place in the formal curriculum of the major universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Nevertheless, they were studied and they influenced subsequent philosophers in a number of ways (Gibson in Gibson 1981). Boethius’ discussion of substantial goods in Opuscula III is one of the first in a long line of treatises on the ‘‘transcendentals,’’ that is, properties that are possessed by a thing merely in virtue of the fact that it exists. Boethius’ suggestion that the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation are, at least to some degree, amenable to logical analysis inspired other philosophers - notably, Peter Abelard - to try their own hand at unraveling some of the deepest ‘‘mysteries’’ of Christianity.
The Consolation is without question Boethius’ most popular and enduring work. It has become a classic whose influence is felt far beyond the Middle Ages. The Consolation was not studied formally at universities, but it was studied and commented well into the sixteenth century. The Consolation was translated into vernaculars such as Old English and Old High German, and it influenced some of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages, including Chaucer, Dante, and Boccaccio. The discussion of foreknowledge and freedom, along with the particular interpretation of Divine eternity that Philosophy employs to develop her solution, has inspired generations of philosophers and theologians, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
See also: > Being > Boethius’ De topicis differentiis, Commentaries on > Future Contingents > Happiness
> Liberal Arts > Logic > Mereology > Metaphysics
> Music, Medieval > Platonism > Syllogism, Theories of
World History
