Hypatia...AD 350-370 to 415

[Goodrum]

The script is pre written, the structure to our very existence keeps playing out again and again...different names, different gender...different era...

[Goodrum]

There are patterns, patterns to life, to our very existence, are you guys noticing this? The patterns? Am I the last to catch on maybe..

[Olga]

Hm. I am sceptical to this "loved" part, why? Because when I read your posts I see this idyllic little happy place where people live in harmony and love each other, and then booom! Creepy Christians come and drag her away.

Then I keep staring at the dates and I go like...

Awell.

Reliving the history you say? Mayhaps it feels like that sometimes. But then again, we humans haven't really changed that much, so we keep going through the same mistakes all over, and when we finally realize we made mistakes, we're at the edge of our lives. The only real difference there is from then and now, is that we live longer today, and thus can make more mistakes during our life time. And yes of course, we can do more good too. If we want to.

[Goodrum]

Okay.

-Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, a mathematician who taught at the great school at the Alexandrine Library.

-Hypatia traveled widely and corresponded with people all over the Mediterranean.

-We know of her only through her letters because all of her work was destroyed when the Great Library of Alexandia was destroyed.

-Hypatia taught at the school in the Library in Alexandria, Egypt.

-Letters written and addressed simply to, "the philosopher" were delivered to her, and she taught mathematics and natural philosophy.

Hypatia became the recognized head of the Neoplatonist school of philosophy at Alexandria about 400, and her eloquence, modesty, and beauty, combined with her remarkable intellectual gifts, attracted a large number of pupils. Among them was Synesius of Cyrene, afterward bishop of Ptolemais (c. 410), several of whose letters to her are still extant, (existing).

In the book, Hypatia: Mathematician, Inventor and Philosopher, by Sandy Donovan, Hypatia believed in "truths that could be proven by evidence".

I think she is a rational. Hypatia is a rational.

-Her teaching style was modelled on Plato's "Dialogues"...similar to questions and answers.

-Hypatia believed in the power of rational thought and the idea that laws of nature can be learned from observation and experimentation.

(So very much like Richard Dawkin's talks about).

[Goodrum]

Hypatia warned about teaching children myths and fairytales...(again, just as Richard Dawkin's speaks about!).

"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies.

To teach superstition as truth is a most terrible thing. The mind of a child accepts them, and only through great pain, perhaps even tragedy can the child be relieved of them."

Rationals: Rule number one? Don't mess with the truth.

She valued logic and truth. Believing in scientific evidence to increase human knowledge, and of Plato's technique of questioning to achieve..

Hypatia did not agree with the Christian practice of accepting views as explanations in the Bible simply because they are in the Bible..

(This is, again, Richard Dawkins I am hearing).

Hypatia is a rational.

She began making public statements about religion:

"All formal religions are delusional, (able to easily mislead people), and must never be accepted by self respecting person's as final".....(Richard!).

[Goodrum]

The words, written in a letter from Synesius, (Hypatia's student), to Hypatia:

"Time was when I could be useful to my friends, and when you, Hypatia, were wont to call me "Others' Good", as using for the good of others my influence with men in great authority, men whom I made to serve me as so many hands. Now I am left destitute of all, unless you have any power for good. You, and Virtue with you, I count a good indeed, of which none can rob me. For you have, and always will have power, by reason of the wise use you make of your credit."

From Charles Kingsley's "Hypatia"...he also mentions in none of Synesius's letters to her is there any mention of a husband, and the supposed husband's, (Isidore), master, Proclus, was not born until the year after Hypatia died.

[Olga]

Any new thoughts about Hypathia Goodrum?

[Quinta]

Delusions are irrational.

Religions are about things difficult to grasp. They represent the search for truth in other dimensions than the purely scientific.

[ENFP123]

Nice work Goodrum

[christina]

Ah, yesss, dito! Are we thinking Fieldmarshal? Inventor?


[Pretty cool ]