The Consolations of Philosophy

On the evening of Thursday 24 September 2026, Dr Jeffrey Lehman led a seminar on Boethius and the recovery of the examined life in the Performing Arts Centre at St Bede's College. The format was a talk, then a light supper, then discussion in small groups, with Dr Lehman moving between the tables.

The session took us into the opening of the Consolation itself. We meet Boethius weeping, eyes fixed on the ground, writing verses of pity for himself. Lady Philosophy enters as a physician. Dr Lehman drew on Aquinas here: a good teacher works as a good doctor does, assisting a nature already made to heal. She reminds Boethius that she once gave him weapons to guard his mind, the liberal arts, and he has thrown them down. Her aim is to lift his gaze from the earth back to the heavens, where a human being is made to look.

Then came her diagnosis. Asked what a man is, Boethius gives the textbook answer: a rational and mortal creature. That, says Philosophy, is the deeper cause of his sickness. He has forgotten what he is. The tables took up that puzzle over supper, and Dr Lehman's answer in the Q&A was worth the evening on its own. Settle the question of human nature first, and the question of who you are as a person follows from it. Our culture tries to answer the second question while refusing the first.

Watch the recording

Watch on YouTube