A Surprising Equivalence between Consolation of Philosophy and Methodology for Societal Complexity

There is the possibility to affirm on a very surprising (methodological) equivalence, beyond a historian space-time, between two important attempts toward the forever difficult "problem solving": I: Consolation of Philosophy, by Roman philosopher and mathematician Boetius (ca. 480–524 or 525), and II: Methodology for Societal Complexity, by professor Dorien J. DeTombe (Defining complex interdisciplinary societal problems. A theoretical study for constructing a co-operative problem analyzing methodology: the methodology COMPRAM. Amsterdam: Thesis publishers Amsterdam (thesis), 1994, 439 pp.). It is here to point, only, on some occurrence of the concepts problem (4) and solve/solution (3) across the text of Consolation of Philosophy: Book III. True Happiness and False. “I understand the problem, but I desire to hear how thou wouldst solve it.” Book v. Free Will and God’s Foreknowledge. Then said I: “But now I am once more perplexed by a problem yet more difficult.” If we could know, as He knows, all that is most perplexing in this problem would be made plain. For knowledge depends not on the nature of the thing known, but on the faculty of the knower. Then said she: This debate about providence is an old one, and is vigorously discussed by Cicero in his ‘Divination’; thou also hast long and earnestly pondered the problem, yet no one has had diligence and perseverance enough to find a solution. And the reason of this obscurity is that the movement of human reasoning cannot cope with the simplicity of the Divine foreknowledge; for if a conception of its nature could in any wise be framed, no shadow of uncertainty would remain. It is obvious that Boetius' texts, here depicted, are comprised into a theological treaty (on the realm of the VI century; onto a dramatic context genesis). But any reader could comprehend that the superior cognitive level of the usage of “foreknowledge”, co-referring the simplicity of the Divinity and the happiness of the humans, is a subtle methodological acquisition of a VI century meditation - but not only - it is an in ovo attempt to a multi-level representation of the real and reality. It is a similar, at least, contemporary attempt toward the interdisciplinary representation and solving of the societal problems within our complexity. A detailed inquiry within the entire content of Boetius' texts would possible depict significant equivalence between his and our attempts toward the “problem solving”, then enhancing us to an extended attempt, awareness, insight and praxis