Single Idea 5757

[catalogued under 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / c. God is the good]

Full Idea

That which by its own nature is something distinct from supreme good, cannot be supreme good. ..It is impossible for anything to be by nature better than that from which it is derived, so that which is the origin of all things is supreme good.

Gist of Idea

God is the supreme good, so no source of goodness could take precedence over God

Source

Boethius (The Consolations of Philosophy [c.520], III.X)

Book Reference

Boethius: 'The Consolations of Philosophy', ed/tr. Watts,V.E. [Penguin 1969], p.101


A Reaction

This is the contortion early Christians got into once they decided God had to be 'supreme' in the moral world (and every other world). Boethius allows a possible external source of all morality, but then has to say that this source is morally inferior.