Category Archives: Boethius

Sinc ea?e m?g, gold on grunde, gumcynnes gehwone oferhigian, hyde se ?e wylle.

Posted on 2009/04/21 by ngilmour

Beowulf is over, and so my semester of experimental literature survey wraps up with it. ?I was dog-tired when I taught today, impending events having robbed me of some sleep, and I felt like the lesson suffered somewhat, but Beowulf?is … Continue reading →

Posted in Boethius, medieval, teaching | 2 Comments

Wyrd oft nere? unf?gne eorl, ?onne his ellen deah

Posted on 2009/04/14 by ngilmour

Strangely enough, even though I had just as much amateur linguistics lore, Tolkien tidbits, and other distractions in my notes today, our class on Beowulf turned out more focused than did our class on Anglo-Saxon elegies just before spring break.? … Continue reading →

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Another Semester of Liberal Education

Posted on 2008/11/22 by ngilmour

I met with the last of my portfolio-revision groups on Thursday afternoon, and now that I’ve actually slept and had a chance to reflect on this fall’s classes, I’m pleased with my efforts.? I hope I never get so stupid … Continue reading →

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Is Freedom an Illusion?

Posted on 2008/11/06 by ngilmour

We finished the Consolation of Philosophy with a bang today, and Dr. Freer came in on a very animated class to boot.? I started both classes with a fairly detached discussion of what chance is for Boethius, and we extended … Continue reading →

Posted in Boethius, teaching | 7 Comments

Does Evil Exist?

Posted on 2008/11/04 by ngilmour

We had a really great class in both sections today.? We began by tackling Boethius’s famous distinction between fate and providence, and the class followed along pretty well as we worked out the categories.? Boethius calls Fate the temporal unfolding … Continue reading →

Posted in Boethius, teaching | 5 Comments

Respecting the Office

Posted on 2008/10/30 by ngilmour

This was the perfect time for book three of Consolation to come along.? We all know that, five days and change from now, when the federal election commission declares the votes tallied and one of two men president-elect, the nastiness … Continue reading →

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Negating the World with Boethius

Posted on 2008/10/28 by ngilmour

It’s fun, really, if one throws one’s self into it.? Money has no value at all when hoarded, and it has no staying power when spent.? Political and military power are illusions: they rely on chains of command that become … Continue reading →

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The Nature of Humanity

Posted on 2008/10/23 by ngilmour

It’s interesting how different classes take the same questions in entirely different directions.? In today’s comp classes we discussed book one of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, and along with the text I wrapped up the session with a fairly straightforward … Continue reading →

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Boethius and Alfred

Posted on 2008/03/26 by ngilmour

I led discussion in our Old English seminar and held my own with the big ax-swinging Anglo-Saxonists.? That’s always a nice feeling.? Now the next few weeks are going to be low-maintenance for me in there–each student has one discussion … Continue reading →

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The Bible and Pornography

Posted on 2008/03/25 by ngilmour

Am I fishing for funky Google searches?? Yes. We spent the bulk of today’s class talking about the fourth scene of J.B., in which paparazzi-style reporters scheme to capture a picture of Sarah, J.B.’s wife, just at the moment when … Continue reading →

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Free to Do Otherwise

Posted on 2007/11/13 by ngilmour

We wrapped up our textual discussion today, always a bummer.? I had forgotten that book five of Consolation was such a short one, but fortunately today also happens to be my class’s turn to do evaluations, so all worked out. … Continue reading →

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Something or No-thing?

Posted on 2007/11/08 by ngilmour

Such was our topic today as we finished book four of Consolation.? Boethius asserts ultimately that, because evil is a movement away from goodness/being/God and towards nothing, the result of all evil will be nothing, and thus there is no … Continue reading →

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Going to Evil School

Posted on 2007/11/06 by ngilmour

I’ll admit that I didn’t do my best teaching today.? For whatever reason, I had trouble getting the discussion going in meaningful directions in either class, and although my students were saying good things, I didn’t do a very good … Continue reading →

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All Saints’ Day

Posted on 2007/11/01 by ngilmour

I could tell that my 8:00 class is a pious group today; almost half of them missed class, no doubt for All Saints’ Day services.? And of the ones that did show up, half of them had their heads bowed … Continue reading →

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Plato Therapy

Posted on 2007/10/30 by ngilmour

We jumped a thousand years into the future today, landing squarely in the sixth century AD.? A class that lives, so to speak, in ancient Greece can make those sorts of jumps. We found at the end of our jump … Continue reading →

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Honest Boethius

Posted on 2006/05/16 by ngilmour

Just finished The Consolation of Philosophy yesterday. The final three chapters deal with those lovely questions of divine foreknowledge, determinism, and human agency. Boethius, an unapologetic Platonist, unsurprisingly advances the Platonist argument that the same action that seems undetermined to … Continue reading →

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