Journal of the History of Philosophy

BOOK REVIEWS 101 A thirty-page Introduction outlines the five topics that Aristotle deals with, change, infinite, place, void, and time. 12o pages of running backnotes comment on individual difficulties and offer help with references to other authors and commentators , outlining in detail Aristotle's lines of argument. There is a full bibliography and an excellent index to the Introduction and Notes. An Additional Note, on Aristotle's dynamics, shows that, mistaken as it is in part, the dynamics is far more systematic and complete than most commentators, ancient and modern, have made out. A second Additional Note, of which Mr. Hussey promises a longer version, is on Aristotle 's philosophy of mathematics. He describes Aristotle as "determinedly realist" and as a "finitist," and shows the importance of realizing that it "is precisely part of Aristotle's finitism that he would refuse to treat, as something existent, a collection of which not all the members were existent at the time of speaking" (xx). In his discussion Mr. Hussey is at home with current work in the philosophy of mathematics, but he is enough of a clearheaded historian of thought to know, as he says, "that it is not advisable to use any notion corresponding to that of set in modern set theory" (xx). This work will be of enormous help to anyone studying Aristotle's account of the physical world and will provide many helpful points for the student beginning such. Unfortunately for the user, the changes in recent years in bookmaking (one hesitates to use the word "printing") have resulted in a book with "perfect binding," that is to say, in a book with pages not connected by stitching but fastened together with rubber cement as in a scratch pad. This allows individual pages to become detached after such use as is required in reviewing or study. In spite of this defect in the mode of presentation the text of this volume is superb and is highly recommended. WILLIAM H. HAY University of Wisconsin Henry Chadwick. Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Pp. xv + 313 . $18.oo. Over the years we have come to expect from Prof. Henry Chadwick all the necessary elements of judicious scholarship, brilliant presentation, and engaging insights into obscure corners of intellectual history. Notwithstanding the extensive bibliography on Boethius (261-84) and two bibliographicalnotes (254-6o), there was need for a Single, compact volume such as this to bring together in English all the strands of modern scholarship concerning "the last of the Romans, first of the scholastics" (Lorenzo Valla). Himself an outstanding Church historian, Henry Chadwick is equally at home in Neoplatonic philosophy, Pythagorean harmonic theory, Aristotelian logic, Christian theology, both Greek and Latin, as well as vernacular literature. He is exceptionally well-qualified to mark the fifteenth centenary of the birth of Boethius (early 48os) with a remarkable volume on the historical context of Boethius 's life (chap. 1) and the four "consolations" noted in the subtitle (chap. 2-5). What little is known about the life of Boethius is woven into the plenty that is known of "Romans and Goths" 0-68). Orphaned at an early age, this son ofa promi- 102 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 23;1 JANUARY 198 5 nent family became intimately intertwined with the illustrious Memmius Symmachus, who became his mentor, father-in-law, and protecter. Chadwick says little of Boethius' early philosophical formation, which could have been under Ammonius in Alexandria , as Courcelle always insisted. But he makes the intriguing suggestion that "John the deacon of Rome" to whom three of the opuscula sacra are dedicated, might have been the instructor of the fourth (Deride catholica), the famous diplomat under Pope Hormisdas, the later Pope John I (523-26). Although the actual date of Boethius' execution at Pavia is unknown (probably in 525) or the length of his imprisonment, Chadwick makes a good case for the early months of 526 before Pope John died in Theodoric's dungeon at Ravenna on May 18. In any case, the motive was no less religious than political, although the martyrdom of Severinus commemorated at Pavia on October 23 may refer to...