In today’s pop-world, there seems to be an infatuation with self-help books. In fact, I recently went to Amazon.com and searched “self-help” and I was given 125,800 results in–book form. These books are strewn with ideas of “goal setting” and “goal orientation” and so on, which are the supposed keys to success in life and the business world. These books are never deep, and are often trashy money makers that never actually answer any of life’s questions. They offer quick fix solutions to problems that often require time and hard work. These books do not ask the true question, of “What is the goal of life? Why am I on this planet?” A seemingly less trashy form of a self help book was written in 523 C.E., by Anicius Boethius, with his The Consolation of Philosophy. In it he asks questions like, “if there is an all powerful, all knowing all loving God, then why is there evil?” He also attempts to give a meaning of life. While Boethius argues that the goal to life is happiness, and that happiness is God, it is more than likely, that the true meaning to life is as simple as procreation and, eventually, death.

It is important to talk about the reasons

Many will argue that this is an extremely pessimistic view towards life, but with a careful re-read of the above statement, there is one key word that must be stressed. Ultimate. With this word, the door is open to endless possibilities.

behind the writing of this book before stepping any further into this discussion. Boethius was a person of some renown and power in his time, which was right after the fall of the Roman Empire. He was sentenced to death for some seemingly rather insignificant reasons, and was placed under house arrest for some time. During this time his self-pity thrust him into a sort of depression in which caused him to question both his faith (as he was highly devoted to Christianity), and his livelihood. Because of this, he decided to philosophize upon human goals and God. What came out was The Consolation of Philosophy. Whether or not he sufficiently answered his questions, we shall find out.

The idea, then is, that there is an ultimate goal, and then there are any number of other goals. In this number there are goals such as surviving day to day (which would not contradict the Ultimate goal, because the Ultimate goal supercedes all others), there are goals in school, and so on (to get a complete listing of all goals, refer to Amazon.com and spend all of your money on trashy self-help books.)

The problem with the meaning of life being procreation in today’s society is that our world population (hovering somewhere around 6.5 Billion people) has gotten so big, is that the jeopardy of our species dying out, from natural causes, is slim. It seems, then, that there is too much sex, and not enough death. Some countries with excessive populations (i.e. India and China), have instated laws to curve the birth rate/death rate. If more people do not start dying, the World’s health will be (and already is) in great peril. Nature, being as responsive and powerful as it is, has been working very hard to balance the population.

Boethius is saying, then, that everyone wants happiness, and happiness is the pinnacle of achievement. Happiness is the zenith of man’s accomplishment because it is totally good, and if it was not totally good, then it would not be happiness. An

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