Philosophy and the View From Above in Alejandro

7/31/2019 Philosophy and the View From Above in Alejandro

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- What is the theme of Agora?

- To me, its a difficult question. I always say its a

story of a woman, a civilization, and a planet. I tried tosee the earth in perspective. I tried to look at the earthas smallas small as possible

Alejandro Amenabar onAgora, in interview at www-site http://www.webcitation.org/5qKVt2Mdc


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Since 2005, two Hypatia novels, one of which has beenre-released under new title in 2010.

Following Maria Dzielskas 1996 invaluable studyHypatia of Alexandria , since 2000 four book-lengthstudies on Hypatias life and thought.

2010 re-release of Charles Kingsleys nineteenthcentury classic Hypatia, or New Foes With an Old Faceincluding a To Kindle edition (!)

Feminist hero?

Enlightenment martyr (Voltaire et al)? Last of the Athenians/pagans/classical philosophers? Gibbon on Hypatia, her gorgeous train of horses,

Cyrils jealous eye, and indelible crimethe declineand fall of the classical world


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Mathematical commentaries: Euclid, Diophantus, ApolloniusConics (to which well return below)

Astronomical commentaries: PtolemysAlmagest, perhaps also TheHandy Tables.

Her sophia: ... such attainments in literature and science as to

surpass all the philosophers of her time (Socrates Scholastius, c.450 CE) Her sophrosyne: articulate and eloquent in speaking as she was

prudent and civil in her deeds. (loc cit.) Her trasn-religious urbanity: students from amongst pagans, Jews,

Christians, as inAgora, and leading citizens: Orestes (to be the

prefect of Alexandria) and Synesius, to be a bishop. Adored by her students: Palladus (you who are yourself thebeauty of reasoning) and Synesius (I account you the only goodthing that remains inviolate, along with virtue Letter 81; she wholegitimately presides over the mysteries of philosophy. Letter 137)


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East and West; Europe and Africa; paganism and monotheism;Christianity and Judaism

free inquiry and dogmatic faith? Athens and Jerusalem (Shestov, Levinas,Leo Strauss & his

students)? The eclipse of paganism, the rise of Christianity: in the decades

preceding the films action (391 and then 412-415 C. E.), theEmperor Julian had tried and failed to arrest the great culturalshift from paganism to Christendom, which a Christian ministerin the film warns Hypatia is a matter of time (Agora, scene 16

[1:23:55-1:24:00]). Interesting times + Hypatias virtues + paucity of direct evidence= space and cause for the proliferation of different Hypatias, esp. ina time like ours which strikingly resembles the religious diversityand conflicts of late C4 CE Alexandria.


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Two poles or equants of our concern:

What is philosophy? For the ancients, a way oflife, not a profession

What can the effects of the scientific revolutionin natural philosophy be on such a notion ofphilosophy?

Carried through by recourse to the figure ofHypatia inAgora, a modern depiction of anancient, female sophos or sage.


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The Ptolemaic view (scenes 1 and 3, inHypatias Academy)


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Retrogression (problem) and epicycles (thePtolemaic way of saving appearances, and thecommitment to circular motionor else toposit that the earth is accentric relative to the

suns orbit, seeAgora 1:06:30 [not to have acentre breaks my heart, Aspasias])


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Aristarchus and Copernicus simplersolutionheliocentrism, not geocentrism


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But heliocentrism conflicts with our sense thatthe earth we walk on is the most stable downto earth thing that could be!

The ship experiment, showing relativity ofmotion (its external, indifferent character,rather than the Aristotelian idea that the waysomething tends to move belongs to its specific

nature).

Agora scene 12 [1:01:30-1:03:30],


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The earth moves around the sun = the earth is a heavenly bodyor planet itself

The Aristotelian objection that movement down here isimperfect, yet surely the planets move in perfect spheres.

The filth and mire of the world, Montaigne in the final

decades of the 16th century, bespeaks its place as the worst, thelowest, the most lifeless part of the universe, the bottom storeyof the house

Agora 1:23:20, the argument in the mouth of prefect Orestes,look around you, death and destruction. If the stars move in acircle, why would they share their perfection with us?

Amenabars Hypatia, faced with the contradiction, does notdefend the perfection of the heavens, but brings them down toearth, anticipating the 17th century break with the ancientconception, i.e. possibility of celestial physics or evenmechanics(!).

ie. Perhaps they do not move in spheres, as their differentbrightnesses during retrogression would imply ...


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The Conics of Apollonius on which Hypatia wrotecommentary)

show ... thatscandalously--the sphere is not perfectand sui generis. It can be generated as one of a series of

four shapes made by slicing a cone at different angles... (Agora 1:37:10 -1:38:10)


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Perhaps then epicycles can be avoided bysupposing that planets move around the earth,and the earth the sunbut not in spheres.

Rather in ellipses ... This implies that orbits have not one centre, but

two equants ... [Agora 1:38:10-ff.]


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Is this not a simply antiChristian film?

Against political reductionism: responding to art as wholly

reducible to political content Plus: Amenabars Hypatia as surely like Christ, with the slave boy

Davus as like Peter, betraying her and then repenting from shame

Two shaping allegorised thoughts:

An ellipse has two centres, not oneso too the film is an argumentagainst extremism, not Christianity, Judaism, or any one tradition;not Athens without Jeruselem; nor men solely, but women also.

And ...


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Euclids first koinia ennoia: if two things areequal to a third, then they are equal to eachother.

The three, unequal statements of Euclids firstcommon notion in the film: Hypatias toOrestes and Synesius; Orestes to Christians and

Jews; and Synesius false application of it to

Hypatia, in front of Orestesin order to try toconvert Hypatia from pagan philosophy


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as Euclids common notion suggests, so too, beforethe vast greatness of the cosmos, Christians andpagans, Christians and Jews, are equal to eachother

i.e. The hero of the film is this greater, third (notfifth or ethereal!) element: the vastness of thecosmos itself

Amenabar: I was on a boat in Malta in 2004, andfor the first time I saw the Milky Way, and I was

overwhelmed ... I wanted to convey this. The nine views from above, at start and end, and

each great moment of violence and passionbetween these two poles.


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The ancient view of philosophy as an ethicalpursuit and way of living (bios)hence therelevance of biographies, memorabilia.

The passions as partial, closed and distortingperspectives on the world

Spiritual exercises to combat the passions, andreshape theprokoptas(students) thinking

The example of the cloth with menstrual bloodin Agora as a spiritual exercise

Hypatiassophrosyne reconsidered: a

philosophical comportment


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Cf. P.Hadot, The View from Above in Philosophy as a Way of Life. Lady Philosophy to Boethius in Consolations II.7:

'Yes,' said she, '... there is one thing which can attract minds, which, thoughby nature excelling, yet are not led by perfection to the furthest bounds ofvirtue; and that thing is the love of fame and reputation for deserving well ofone's country. Think then thus upon it, and see that it is but a slight thing of

no weight. As you have learnt from astronomers' showing, the wholecircumference of the earth is but as a point compared with the size of theheavens. That is, if you compare the earth with the circle of the universe, itmust be reckoned as of no size at all. And of this tiny portion of the universethere is but a fourth part, as you have learnt from the demonstration ofPtolemaeus [Ptolemy], which is inhabited by living beings known to us. Iffrom this fourth part you imagine subtracted all that is covered by sea andmarsh, and all the vast regions of thirsty desert, you will find but the

narrowest space left for human habitation. And do you think of setting forthyour fame and publishing your name in this space, which is but as a pointwithin another point so closely circumscribed? And what size ormagnificence can fame have which is shut in by such close and narrowbounds? ...

i.e. Smarten up!


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The aim of repeatedly recalling to mind the view to attainto greatness of soul, and in all schools its function was toteach people to despise human affairs and to achieve innerpeace. (Hadot 242-243)

Cf. Philo of Alexandria, on philosophy and the view from

above:

As their goal is a life of peace and serenity, [thephilosophers] contemplate nature and everything foundwithin her: they attentively explore the earth, the sea, the air,the sky, and every nature found therein. In thought, theyaccompany the moon, the sun, and the rotations of the otherstars, whether fixed or wandering. Their bodies remain onearth, but they give wings to their souls, so that, rising intothe ether, they may observe the powers which dwell there,as is fitting for those who have truly become citizens of theworld ... (at Hadot 243-244)


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Amenabar onAgora as political and suprapolitical film:

The moviewhat it is saying is that every time you defend yourideas by using arms, by killing people, then you become [like] an insectand that happened with the Jews, that happened with the Christiansand that happened with the Pagans. It's happening nowadays withfundamentalism... any kind of fundamentalism ...

If you film alot of people from above and speed it up, we look likeants. I wanted to show that perspective so people would realise were nothingbut tiny creatures ...

Yes and, at the same time, ... greatyou see these highly developedpeople as small as ants [at the same time] knowing so much about theuniverse. So the movie shows man at his best and at his worst.


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The ethical import of the view from above does notpresuppose the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system, orany system with particular or even general

pronoia/providence

Ancient atomism and the infinite universe inLucretius De Rerum Natura a double thought: humans as both tiny in the

cosmic perspective, and great enough to realisethisand perhaps therefore to temper their less

noble passions Agora as an argument for the ethical import of

scientific, disenchanted culture in engenderingenlightened or philosophic humility.


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The filmAgora is about:

... [a sense] mostly [of] having travelled to thestars ... and if people dont like the film, I hope

at least that it makes them want to climb amountain one day, or go to the desert or thesea, and look at the starsbecause we cant seethem from the city. And I think that at least

once in our lives, we should look at the skyaround us and see where we are, because it isreally amazing ...

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Philosophy and the View From Above in Alejandro