Name: ボエティウスの『哲学の慰め (Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy)
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T17:28:49.000Z
Duration: 9 min 28 s
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For some 400 years across the European Middle Ages, one philosophy book was prized above any other. Present in every educated person's library, it was titled in Latin De Consolatione

ヨーロッパ中世の約400年間、一冊の哲学書が他のどの本よりも珍重されていた。教養のある人々の書斎に必ずあったその本のタイトルは、ラテン語で『コンソレーショの哲学』（De Consolatione）だった。

Philosophia or, as we know it in English today, The Consolation of Philosophy. Additions appeared in all the large European languages, Chaucer translated it into English, as did Sir Thomas

フィロソフィア』、あるいは今日英語で知られているように『哲学の慰め』である。チョーサーはこれを英語に翻訳し、サー・トーマスも翻訳した。

Moore and Elizabeth I, and Dante made it into a centrepiece of the intellectual scaffolding of his Divine Comedy. The book was the work of the Italian statesman, scholar and academic

ムーアとエリザベス1世、そしてダンテはこの本を『神曲』の知的足場の中心に据えた。この本は、イタリアの政治家であり、学者であり、学者であった

Boethius, who penned it in a few months in appalling circumstances in a prison in Pavia in 523 AD. Boethius was born into a highly successful and wealthy family in the years after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. From an early age, he took an interest in the classics and translated much of Plato and Aristotle's work from Latin into Greek.

ボエティウスは、西暦523年、パヴィアの牢獄で数ヶ月の間にこの本を書き上げた。ボエティウスは、西ローマ帝国崩壊後の数年間、非常に成功した裕福な家庭に生まれた。幼い頃から古典に興味を持ち、プラトンやアリストテレスの著作の多くをラテン語からギリシャ語に翻訳した。

It is thanks in great measure to his efforts that classical philosophy made its way into the Middle Ages and then into the modern world. For many years, Boethius' life was seemingly blessed. He lived in a sumptuous villa in Rome and was married to a kind and beautiful woman called Rosiziana, with whom he had two handsome, clever and affectionate sons. Under a sense of obligation to his society, Boethius eventually entered politics and occupied a number of elevated administrative positions under the ruler of Italy, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. Bertrand Russell wrote of him, he would have been remarkable in any age. In the age in which he lived, he is utterly amazing. But suddenly, in the spring of 523

古典哲学が中世へ、そして近代へと発展したのは、彼の努力の賜物である。長年にわたり、ボエティウスの人生は一見恵まれていた。ローマの豪華な別荘に住み、ロジツィアーナという優しくて美しい女性と結婚し、ハンサムで賢く、愛情深い2人の息子をもうけた。社会に対する義務感から、ボエティウスはやがて政界に入り、イタリアの支配者であるオストロゴート族の王テオドリックのもとで、数々の高位の行政職に就いた。バートランド・ラッセルは彼について、「どの時代においても、彼は注目に値する人物だっただろう。彼が生きた時代においては、まっ

AD, Boethius' fortune ran out. There was a knock at the door and a gang of Theodoric's guards accused him, quite falsely, of having plotted against the increasingly paranoid and vengeful king. With scarcely time to say goodbye to his family, Boethius was carted off to prison. Entirely innocent but also aware of the risk he was in, Boethius fell into despair. In a tiny cell, he contemplated his rapid fall from grace, his love for his family and the unfairness of his destiny. What would eventually lift his spirits and at the same time gift humanity one of its greatest works of prison literature of any time or place, was his decision to think his way, philosophically, out of his sorrows.

AD、ボエティウスの財産は底をついた。ドアがノックされ、テオドリックの護衛の一団が、ますます偏執的で復讐心に燃えた王に謀反を企てたと、まったくの虚偽で彼を非難したのだ。家族に別れを告げる暇もなく、ボエティウスは牢獄に入れられた。全く無実でありながら、自分がおかれている危険性を認識していたボエティウスは絶望に陥った。狭い独房の中で、彼は自分の急速な転落、家族への愛、運命の不公平さについて考えた。やがて彼の精神を高揚させ、同時に人類に古今東西の獄中文学の最高傑作のひとつを贈ったのは、悲しみから抜け出す方法を哲

As the consolation of philosophy opens, Boethius describes his listless sadness and terror at his state. White hairs are scattered untimely on my head and the skin hangs loosely from my worn-out limbs. But, in this downcast state, Boethius receives an unexpected visit. While

哲学の慰め』の冒頭で、ボエティウスは元気のない悲しみと自分の状態に対する恐怖を描写する。私の頭には白い毛が無造作に散り、擦り切れた手足からは皮膚がゆるく垂れ下がっている。しかし、この沈んだ状態のボエティウスに、思いがけない訪問がある。その頃

I was pondering thus in silence and using my pen to set down so tearful a complaint, there appeared standing over my head a woman's form, whose countenance was full of majesty, whose eyes shone as with fire and whose power of insight surpassed that of all men. His visitor is a metaphorical figure whom Boethius terms Lady Philosophy. Lady Philosophy is carrying a pile of classical books in one hand and a sceptre in the other and she has come to visit Boethius in his cell in order to remind him of some of the fundamental truths of his favourite subject, largely as defined by the Stoic school of Greece and Rome. That she should have dropped in on him was, in a sense, no surprise. In the classical world, philosophy was not an abstract academic discipline. It was a set of tools specifically designed to help one live and die well, with particular relevance at the darkest moments. Lady Philosophy begins by gently chiding Boethius for flaring up against his fate. She reminds him, as Stoic philosophers had constantly stressed, that human beings are not in control of most of what happens to them. Our destiny is in large measure in the hands of a devilishly powerful, seductive goddess whom the Romans knew as Fortuna, the goddess of fortune. This figure was a central deity in the Roman pantheon and was represented across the Roman world on coins and statues. She was typically depicted holding a cornucopia in one hand, overflowing with fruit and luxuries, and on the other leaning on a tiller, a marker of her capacity to direct people's fates. Depending on her mood, fortune might either shower us with gifts or, with a blithe smile, steer us towards catastrophe. To be a philosopher means to understand all that fortune controls, to resist her blandishments, to know never to put complete faith in the things that are, ultimately, always in the hands of an immoral and reckless force, and to prepare for the day when we may have to surrender her gifts at a stroke.

その表情は威厳に満ち、その目は炎のように輝き、その洞察力はすべての人を凌駕していた。来訪者はボエティウスが「哲学婦人」と呼ぶ比喩的な人物である。哲学婦人は、片手に古典の書物の山、もう片方の手には杖を持ち、ボエティウスの独房を訪ねてきた。彼女がボエティウスのもとに立ち寄ったことは、ある意味で驚きではなかった。古典の世界では、哲学は抽象的な学問ではなかった。哲学とは、人がよく生き、よく死ぬために特別に設計された道具のセットであり、特に最も暗い瞬間に関連するものであった。レディ・フィロソフィーはまず、運命に逆上

These gifts comprise most of what we would, today, think of as the fundamental ingredients of happiness – love, family, children, prosperity, reputation and career. But, for a Stoic philosopher, none of them should be things that the wise should ever really trust, for all of them can be lost in horrific circumstances at any moment. Lady Philosophy sits with Boethius in his cell and reminds him of his appalling exposure to fortune's deceptive charm.

愛、家族、子供、繁栄、名声、出世などである。しかし、ストア派の哲学者にとっては、どれも賢者が本当に信頼すべきものであってはならない。レディ・フィロソフィーは独房でボエティウスに寄り添い、幸運の欺瞞に満ちた魅力にさらされている彼の恐ろしさを思い起こさせる。

I know the many disguises of that monster, fortune, and the extent to which she seduces with friendship the very people she is striving to cheat, until she overwhelms them with unbearable grief at the suddenness of her desertion. But Lady Philosophy also reminds Boethius that the wise have to resist putting their faith in the gifts of fortune. She introduces a famous image of a wheel of fortune which spins between success and favour and appalling punishment and pain. Fortune spins the wheel with abandon and merciless cruelty, enjoying the screams of those who, only hours before, were confident of their future. If you are trying to stop her wheel from turning, you of all men are the most obtuse, Lady Philosophy tells Boethius. You are seeking to regain what really did not belong to you. Fortune herself pipes up at this point and says with chilling candour, Inconstancy is my very essence, it is the game I never cease to play as I turn my wheel in its ever-changing circle.

私は、幸運という怪物のさまざまな変装を知っているし、彼女がだまそうとしている人々そのものを友情で誘惑する程度も知っている。しかし、フィロソフィー婦人もまた、賢者は幸運の賜物に信頼を置くことに抵抗しなければならないことをボエティウスに思い起こさせる。彼女は、成功や好意と恐ろしい罰や苦痛の間を回る幸運の輪の有名なイメージを紹介する。フォーチュンは、ほんの数時間前まで将来を確信していた人々の悲鳴を楽しみながら、奔放かつ無慈悲に車輪を回す。その車輪の回転を止めようとしているのなら、あなたはすべての人の中で最も鈍感

Yes, rise up on my wheel if you like, but don't count it an injury when by the same token you begin to fall as the rules of the game will require. Isn't this what tragedy commemorates with its tears and tumult? Lady Philosophy now gets to the heart of her message.

そう、私の車輪の上で立ち上がるのは構わないが、ゲームのルールが要求するように、同じ意味合いで転び始めても、それを怪我とみなしてはいけない。これこそ、悲劇が涙と騒動で記念するものではないのか？レディ・フィロソフィーのメッセージの核心はここにある。

Boethius must, like any good philosophically inclined person, stop trusting in anything that fortune can take away at once. You know there is no constancy in human affairs when a single swift hour can often bring a man to nothing. If you are in possession of yourself, you will possess something you would never wish to lose and something fortune could never take away. Happiness cannot consist in things governed by chance. Boethius must retreat to what the Stoic philosophers called his inner citadel, a minimal self immune from the cruelty of fortune. Lady Philosophy stresses that a different sort of happiness can be found by focusing on all that fortune can never make one lose, specifically one's powers of reasoning, which give one access to the beauty, mystery and complexity of the universe. True philosophers rise above their immediate circumstances, become indifferent to their own fate and identify with the vast forces of history and nature. It is a measure of the relevance of Boethius' message that we today so firmly identify happiness with two areas that lie entirely in the hands of fortune, romantic love and career success.

ボエティウスは、哲学に傾倒した善良な人なら誰でもそうであるように、運が一度に奪ってしまうようなものを信頼するのはやめなければならない。たった一刻の出来事で人が無に帰してしまうことがよくあるように、人間の営みには不変のものなどないのだ。もしあなたが自分自身を持っているのなら、あなたは決して失いたくないもの、そして幸運が決して奪うことのできないものを持つことになる。幸福は偶然に支配されるものでは成り立たない。ボエティウスは、ストア派の哲学者たちが内なる城塞と呼んだもの、つまり、幸運の残酷さから免れる最小限の自

And unsurprisingly, we are continually let down here too, the wheel of fortune spinning us randomly from promise to disgrace, from hope to ruin. Boethius' provocative message to his own times and to our own is that the best way to find peace of mind may be to perceive the ingredients we associate with happiness as in truth direct conduits to a fundamental instability and thereby to inner torment and anxiety. Boethius' wisdom was to be the last eloquent outcry of the guiding ideas of classical philosophy and in particular its Stoic branch. Thereafter, Christianity subsumed its insights, which were then further obscured by the scientific optimism of the modern period. Our own troubled times deserve to witness the rediscovery of the Stoic message. We become philosophers not by writing books or attending university courses, but by appreciating how little of our lives is in our hands, the ubiquity and fickleness of fortune and our need to look beyond public opinion, family, love and status in order to build up serenity through the exercise of one's distinctive and fate-independent mental powers. Boethius was killed, as he feared, a few months after being imprisoned. His grave lies in the church of San Pietro in Celdoro in Pavia, half an hour from Milan. In his honour, we should leave space for Lady Philosophy occasionally to come and visit us and, when we are facing the worst turns of fortune's wheel, let her strengthen our resolve to depend a little less on what was, in fact, never really ours to rely upon.

そして当然のことながら、私たちはここでも失望させられ続け、運命の歯車は私たちを約束から不名誉へ、希望から破滅へと無作為に回転させる。ボエティウスが、彼の時代、そして私たちの時代に向けて発した挑発的なメッセージは、心の平穏を見出す最善の方法は、私たちが幸福を連想する要素が、実は根源的な不安定さへの直接的な導線であり、それによって内なる苦悩や不安をもたらすものであると認識することかもしれないということだ。ボエティウスの知恵は、古典哲学、特にそのストア派の指導的思想の最後の雄弁な叫びとなった。その後、キリスト教

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ボエティウスの『哲学の慰め (Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy)

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