December is still more than six months away which means we have quite some time to wait before we can see the movie Agora.
According to Wikipedia, “Agora is an upcoming 2009 historical drama film directed by Alejandro Amenábar, written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil, and starring Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella. It was screened Out of Competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It will then get a general release on December 18, 2009.”
The movie is about the love story of astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (Rachel Weisz) and her slave Davus (Max Minghella). It is more than a love story though because it also shows what went on during Hypatia’s time in the 4th century when religious persecution was rampant among Christians and Jews. Racehl Weisz says empathically of the story, “It’s the true story of a fourth-century woman and, in some ways, nothing much has changed. We’ve evolved in so many ways, and in others we haven’t evolved at all. We can go into outer space and travel to the moon; we can cure certain diseases; but we still kill each other in the name of religion. It seems so primitive to still be doing that.” How true.
The real Hypatia was a Greek scholar from Alexandria in Egypt. Aside from being a philosopher and astronomer she was also the first notable woman in mathematics. Hypatia died in the hands of a Coptic Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil.
Humour. Humour is very important and the philosophy of humour is a very interesting topic but today’s post isn’t about that, instead here’s a link to a site that will allow you to indulge yourself with a philosophical argument with none other than the great Socrates. Yep. You’ve got that right. If you wish to match your wits against Socrates then head on to The Socrates Argument Clinic.
A friendly reminder: If you don’t win the argument you’ll need to drink the hemlock but if you win Socrates will drink it for you. Of course it is really difficult to win against Socrates but there are some who have won.
If you wish to take more than the free argument clinic though you’ll be disappointed since the link to the InterQuest homepage no longer works.
Have a good time arguing with Socrates!
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
The book New Waves in Philosophy of Religion has been published by Palgrave MacMillan last December as part of its New Waves in Philosophy anthology series. The series aims to “gather the young and up-and-coming scholars in philosophy to give their view of the subject now and in the years to come, and to serve a documentary purpose.”
New Waves in Philosophy of Religion, edited by Y. Nagasawa & E. Wielenberg, discusses the “perennial problems and emerging issues from refreshingly new points of view and develop original ideas. It addresses such topics as: divine attributes, the origin of the universe, evolution and design, implications and puzzles of religious doctrines, morality and God, and the meaning of life.”
Contents of the book is as follows:
