The real world is essentially a mental field, and the question is how to deal with it. ... This article is occasionally falsely written, not binding the truth.
The consolation of philosophy and the haze of history
——Science, Faith and Justice in City Square
text = empty language
Only philosophy, justice that brings freedom,
But there are always people who are enslaved, even enslaved by vain philosophy.
- "Philosophical Tragedy", page 7
Among the tragic encounters of philosophy, the death of Hypatia is far more tragic than that of Socrates. If the death of Socrates is a philosophical allegory, then the death of Hypatia is inscribed with the ills of civilization. They were all murdered because they did not believe in the gods of the secular order, and were thought to be deceiving people. Socrates was tried and sentenced to death for not believing in the gods of the city-state. At the very least, Socrates could argue that the trial was conducted in a civilized manner, in accordance with the procedural justice of the time. And those who slandered Socrates were later retaliated against. Hypatia's death, however, was brutally murdered by cruel Christians - it is said that her hair was forcibly pulled out, her flesh was scraped off, and her wreckage was insulted. And the Christians who carried out the brutal murders were not retaliated against. Instead, those believers were more likely to feel like they were waging a holy war. Now, Christians are spreading all over the world, even occupying the historical chronology. Just as those who resist are facing the tricks of fate, their philosophical reason floats in the haze of history.
"City Square" tells the story of the murder of Hypatia. Although this movie story cannot be viewed as a historical documentary, and some of the plots have been simplified and romanticized, the spirit it shows is still reliable. It shows the philosophical spirit of Hypatia; it shows the historical spirit of civilization and barbarism intertwined, in the death of Hypatia, the madness of the people (Christians) driven by paranoid religious beliefs, Destruction of intellectual civilization. In addition to the clues of worldly emotions, the film is mainly composed of two plot lines, one is Hypatia's solace in philosophy, her passion for philosophy-science, her exploration in philosophy-scientific research, and the other One aspect is Hypatia's fragility in the dust storm of history, her tragic defeat in the confrontation with the paranoid Christian faith, to the point of her tragic death. In fact, the clues of worldly emotions have also penetrated into these two clues.
【Consolation of Philosophy】
The film "City Square" starts from a vast and quiet space, and Hypatia talks about Aristotle's natural philosophy in class. While the film begins with Hypatia speaking about Aristotle's philosophy, she was actually a famous Neoplatonist who made astronomical observations and mathematical research. Aristotle paid more attention to the earth-empirical order, and Platonism paid more attention to the astronomical-mathematical order, just as Raphael painted in "The School of Athens", Plato pointed to the sky and Aristotle covered the ground with his hands. They seem to be in conflict, but in fact they are complementary and coherent. Aristotelianism holds that celestial bodies move in perfect circular motion, while things on Earth are "pulled" by their natural positions. Platonism believes that things on earth are imperfect, and we should use mathematics or rational models to understand space and reality.
Compared with the quiet space, the human world is chaotic and noisy. The origin of philosophy-science lies in the contemplation of space and the human world. The orderly operation of space is the embodiment of natural rationality, and natural rationality provides a reference for disputes in the human world. The world is always flawed, and philosophy finds the perfection of reason in contemplation. It can even be said that, corresponding to the perfect spirit in contemplation, the real world is inherently mentally deficient, and the world is a huge mental field. Philosophy is an intellectual therapy that offers healing or solace to those who are troubled by the chaos of the world.
In a sense, Christianity and some other religions that transcend nationality have a similar view in the spirit contained in them, and regard the earth as a field of spiritual defects and provide consolation for believers. However, there is a big difference between the consolation of philosophy and the consolation of religion. Philosophical reason has superior vitality. Philosophy will not provide arbitrary authority to the fairy tales made up by some people, and philosophy will not struggle with how to deal with certain people. The connection between the humanity and divinity of a prophet. In the historical context of the "City Square" story, the controversy over the connection between the deity and humanity of Jesus is the cause of the confusion, and this is not just a conflict of understanding differences in beliefs, but also for secular power. dispute.
Compared with religion, philosophy is more inclusive, but it will not tolerate ignorance. This is probably one of the reasons why religion can gain greater power, making people follow blindly and dedicate their strength. Although at the very beginning of philosophy, philosophical reason has already criticized the view of homomorphism, the harmony between religious mythology and the secular is not something that philosophy opposes. God is often stated in philosophy, but that is often a symbol of natural reason. As seen in the film City Square, Hypatia's students, a mix of Christians and pagans, get along by sharing Platonic sanity. "City Square" gives a feeling that Hypatia is just a teacher who cares more about her students, occasionally expressing her opinions through her friendship with the consul. In reality, however, Hypatia was a public intellectual. According to the account of the chroniclers of the time, Hypatia also preached philosophy in the town square of Alexandria to any interested audience. The city of Alexandria at that time was a city of mixed beliefs. If there was no ideological basis for common understanding, conflicts would inevitably arise. Philosophy, on the other hand, can provide an intelligible intellectual basis between Christians and pagans. Preaching philosophy to the public can be seen as an effort to maintain order among the populace. However, this effort is very fragile compared to the desire for power or machinations.
Since a philosopher is hindered in his efforts to bring harmony to society, there is solace in philosophy. This is similar to "to be able to help the world, and the poor to be alone". But the difference is that "being alone" lacks philosophical spirit. Contemplation, study and creation in philosophy brought Hypatia an inalienable philosophical solace. Only philosophy made this thinker feel free and let her be herself. Hypatia gave up worldly love for this, and was single all her life, because compared with philosophical reason, the body in the world is imperfect.
Hypatia not only abandons the consolation of love with the consolation of philosophy herself, but also educates her students to realize where the consolation of philosophy surpasses the consolation of love. This is shown in "City Square", in which Hypatia rejects the students' courtship. Courtship is the impulse triggered by erotic comfort. In this regard, Hypatia first rejected him more implicitly, and let the student turn to the love of music. In the philosophical context of the time, music was the embodiment of the mathematical harmony of nature. The student did not seem to grasp the implications of the suggestion, and instead wooed Hypatia by playing music. In response, Hypatia took a direct approach, rejecting the suitor. Hypatia gave the suitor a blood cloth, which symbolized physical disharmony or imperfection or uncleanness, as a reminder to the student to seek a harmonious and perfect intellect, not a discordant and unclean body. "City Square" may be aware of the impurity of the body to express, with a Christian-like ascetic color, and it does not correspond with modern ideology, which may cause misunderstandings, so it is more implicit in this passage. Just let him pursue true harmony.
The fifth century in which Hypatia was located was the time when the classical civilization ended and Christian civilization began to dominate the Mediterranean civilization. Hypatia tried to use philosophy to spread the harmony of ideas and to illuminate the philosophical beacon, but in the fog of time, it could only fail. The desires of the body are difficult to satisfy, let alone Christians who have not received much education, and it is difficult to grasp the philosophical harmony. They have been addicted to the fantasy promises of the monotheistic faith. Therefore, they tore down and destroyed pagan idols, burned and tore up pagan books, and it was enough to have the Bible. For the ancient Greek philosophers, however, the Bible was the record of barbarians. The Bible is not some divine revelation, but a compilation of stories and codes of ethics written by various chroniclers and visionaries. It is full of fiction and contradictions, so later people can extract a few passages from the Bible and interpret them in accordance with the situation at the time, and it will seem reasonable. Even so, especially the New Testament is more literary or ethical, it doesn't tell believers that the earth is round, it doesn't tell them what mathematical reality is, it doesn't tell them about conic sections. What is clear, however, is that the Bible understood by medieval intellectuals was significantly different from the Bible understood by the illiterate.
Content that is not written into Christian teachings cannot be said indiscriminately. It may be because of this that in "City Square", when a Christian believer who does not understand classical civilization declares "the earth is flat", the male slave who once followed Hypatia knew Aristotle It will not tell these believers how to use teleology to explain that the earth can be round. Hundreds of years later, the Christian Church adopted Aristotle's interpretation of the workings of the earth and the celestial bodies, and it became a sacred and inviolable view, no longer belonging to reason, but to faith.
Unlike authoritarian religions, tolerant philosophies revise their theories according to reason. "City Square" fictionalizes the process of Hypatia reflecting on Aristotle's geocentric theory and discovering the elliptical orbit theory of planetary rotation. In the film, Hypatia, after realizing the feasibility of heliocentrism and the elliptical orbits of the planets, watched the rising of the sun with tears in her eyes, full of relief. She stepped out of the cave that bound her soul, and her philosophical reason was as bright and mysterious as the sun; it seemed to be forever out of reach, and it appeared inadvertently. In fact, none of Hypatia's ideas survived, and Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbits of planets was not that simple. However, the significance of this episode is no longer limited to Hypatia herself. With fictitious and plausible scientific achievements, it makes the barbaric condemnation of extremist religion straight to the stars. Without the destruction of civilization by extremist religions, it is very likely that scientific discoveries would have advanced hundreds of years, or even thousands of years. This plot also gives philosophical solace to look down on earthly madness in space. However, even if she wasn't beautiful or intellectually accomplished, Hypatia was more spiritual. Hypatia's tragedy should not be moved by her beauty or her scientific achievements, but by the harmony she attained in the solace of philosophy.
【Historical smog】
Aside from the consolation of philosophy, there is only the haze of history.
The meaning of Hypatia's death no longer lies in herself, and has even overshadowed herself. There are views that her death represents the decline of the classical civilized order; there are views that her death represents the evil of religion, or the evil of extreme religion; there are views that do not value her death, but value her death caused by her death. of feminist claims or the value of intellectuals can be seen in her life experience as a public intellectual. The historical significance of the film "City Square" is to show the evil of extreme religion. The Christians in the film dress more like contemporary extremist terrorists than ancient believers. For many atheists, however, this in no way diminishes the madness and extreme disgust of ancient Christianity. Since the early modern era, the death of Hypatia has been used by atheists to condemn and criticize the Christian system. But Christianity has penetrated into history, has even replaced history in the hearts of believers, and still holds a certain reality. However, madness is not limited to Christianity, or its extreme ideas, but to the barbarism that comes with people establishing order. Hypatia does not demand that reality be pure, nor should we demand that history be pure.
View more about Agora reviews
