Abstract
The article deals with the topic of the goal of human life, as raised by Boethius in the third book of his Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius, in accordance with ancient eudaimonism, equates this goal with happiness, but at the same time admits that people are often mistaken about the nature of "goods" or appropriate means which lead to the achievement of this goal.
The author shows that the source of inspiration for Boethius' reflections on true and false happiness from the first part of the third book was probably Aristotelian and Stoic ethics, and especially the concept of traditional "Roman values" in Cicero. However, he argues that the argumentative procedures in the second part of the third book of the Consolation of Philosophy show that the question of the nature and "place" of the true good, according to Boethius, cannot ultimately be solved within the limited framework of Aristotelian and Stoic ethics and anthropology, but only within the framework of Platonic or Neoplatonic cosmology and metaphysics which provide an appropriate answer to the question of the purpose of the universe.
Only on this background is it possible to arrive at a more satisfactory answer to the question of human happiness, which cannot be achieved only with the help of external goods or virtues but by turning entirely to the One and the Good, which is the principle and the goal of the universe, and by so being divinized. Putting forward a series of parallels, the author proves that the cosmological and metaphysical ideas used by Boethius in the second part of the third book, including the idea of "becoming like God" or deification, have their precursors in Plotinus and Proclus.