Ideas Fora Church Banquet

Hypatia

The last flame of ancient science was kindled in Alexandria, Egypt, at the end of Roman times. The political center of the empire was Rome, but the city was the legendary Library will hold the intellectual fulcrum. The fate of science "Greek" in this final phase is symbolized by the figure of his last great representative and the first famous mathematician, Hypatia of Alexandria, who lived in the second half of Fourth century. It 's the first scientist with known biographical events, but there is no received his work. Margaret Alic noted that Hypatia is the only woman scientist in history of 1500 years of the arc. We had to get to Marie Curie for the world he knew a second, even if other women were dedicated to science in the meantime.

Hypatia was born in an age strongly influenced by Aristotle's misogyny, which was commonly thought that women were not fully human beings. Nevertheless, he received first-rate education. According to a pattern that will recur many times in this book, his great fortune was to have an enlightened father, who instructed her in person. Until the twentieth century, in fact, almost all women who were heading to scientific studies were mentored by a male relative, usually the father or husband. Legend has it that Theon, astronomer and mathematician, wanted to be a perfect daughter. The ancient sources tell that Hypatia was wise, intelligent, virtuous and beautiful. following in the footsteps of his father, became a famous teacher of mathematics and philosophy.
In the fourth century, the growing pressure from religious sectarianism had led to the establishment of separate schools for Christians, Jews and Gentiles, but Hypatia was giving lessons to everyone, and his house was a place where scholars met in debating philosophy and science. In addition to teaching he devoted himself to preparation of mathematics texts. As was the custom of the time, it was mostly commentaries on the works of earlier giants of mathematics, such as Euclid, Apollonius and Diophantus. In his books Hypatia proposed new solutions to old problems and new problems to be better students. Also contributed to the astronomical and mathematical works of his father and compiled tables of positions of celestial bodies. Alongside the theoretical aspects, Hypatia became interested in mechanics and applied technology: designed several scientific instruments, including a plane astrolabe which was used to calculate the time and measure the positions of the sun, stars and planets. In the fourth century Alexandria was not only the center where we still thrive Greek mathematics and science, but also, not coincidentally, one of the places the revival of Pythagoreanism. Hypatia was one of the many intellectuals who joined the communist movement known as Neo-Platonism. It 's the time, already mentioned above, in which new followers of the sage of Samos brought their Hellenistic philosophy as a response to the affirmation of Christianity, and Pythagoras as a rational alternative to Christ. Iamblichus and Porphyry wrote their books in hand with that intent. That is why the Neo-Platonism was perceived by Christians as a rival religion. And indeed it was.
In 412 he became Patriarch of Alexandria, a Christian fanatic named Cyril, who started a campaign to rid the city both by Jews as the Neoplatonists. As a prominent advocate of the second group Hypatia attracted the attention, but the refusal to convert to Christianity cost her life. In 415 he was attacked by a crowd of excited, snatched from the car he was traveling up and slaughtered. Here is the description of the episode in the words of an author of the fifth century, "stripped her naked, scraped the skin and tore her flesh with sharp edges until the breath left her, his body quartered, and brought the remains in a place called Cinaron which reduced them to ashes. " In such a climate Neoplatonism did not survive. With its collapse, it symbolized the death of Hypatia, it is concluded the last phase of the great ancient Greek science. A science began with the birth of a man, ended with the death of a woman.

(Margaret Wertheim, Pythagoras' Trousers . God, women and mathematics , Torino, Instar, 1996)

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