Concept of Fortune

The purpose of this essay is to explore the concept of Fortune in the writings of Boethius and Dante, especially in terms of whether they conceive of fortune as immutable or as something that can to some extent be overcome or altered by human efforts. It will appear that there was little concept in Dante's time or before of Fortune as something that could be overcome by humans in any way except interior attitude, that is, by taking a stance of Christian Stoicism in the face to life's icissitudes.

There have been many studies of Fortune, fortuna, most of which investigate fortuna across broad ranges of time and space, assuming a definition that is based on passages selected from many texts of many epochs, all isolated from their contexts. Consequently such studies have not dealt with the evolution of the concept over time, or with how it functions as an element of a specific philosophy or worldview. The conclusions drawn from this homogeneous concept tend themselves to be rather homogeneous. Frakes specifies the research of H. R. Patch as an example of this sort of broad-spectrum thinking.

De Consolatione Philosophiae by the Christian philosopher Boethius, written about the year 600, enjoyed immense popularity in the Middle Ages and was studied more zealously than almost any other works except for the Bible, some on liturgy, and some of Augustine; it served many as a summa of ancient philosophy. Boethius early on was informally canonized as a saint, and his spiritual aut

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At the beginning of Book II, Philosophia takes on the role of Lady Fortuna herself, in order to have Lady Fortuna step forward to defend herself and her actions. Hence, instead of denying Fortuna any real existence at all, as most earlier writers and theologians had done, Boethius in at least a literary sense presents a Fortuna who actually does control material goods, but only that: unlike the classical Fortuna, she is not described as having complete control of human affairs. Philosophia here endeavors to persuade the Prisoner (who is almost certainly a literary mask, and not Boethius himself) that he is mistaken about Fortuna. She attempts to force a glimmering of recognition into his clouded mind that it is only through Lady Fortuna's disfavor that he has gained any insight into her essence. Later in the book this opening gambit will be developed into the thesis that Lady Fortuna is truly the instrument of God. When she reveals her truly capricious nature to humans by withdrawing her favor, she forces them to reexamine themselves thus toward rediscovery of themselves and of God. Thus this first tiny recognition is the first step toward the summum bonum. At the end of Lady Fortuna's apologia, she argues that it is and

Category: Philosophy - C