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The Philosopher's Shirt

Hypatia - Some Women Just Want to Watch The World Learn

Some men want to watch the world burn. Hypatia taught astronomy and mathematics in Alexandria and was killed by a mob for it, which suggests the opposite ambition.

A pop-culture line doing real historical work for once. Available across tees, women's tees, sweatshirts and hoodies, printed to order. A women-in-philosophy gift for feminists and teachers. She wanted them to learn. They chose the mob.

Questions about this design

What does the Hypatia Some Women Just Want to Watch The World Learn design show?
A black-and-white portrait of Hypatia of Alexandria in profile, framed by the words Some women just want to watch the world learn. Where some people would rather see the world burn, her ambition was the opposite – she taught, and the world burned her instead. A tribute that is funny first and bitter on second reading.
What does Some women just want to watch the world learn mean?
It turns the idea of a destroyer who enjoys chaos into its opposite – a teacher whose only wish is that people understand. Applied to Hypatia it carries real history, since she spent her life teaching mathematics, astronomy and philosophy in Alexandria and was murdered by a mob in 415.
Who was Hypatia of Alexandria?
A Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, born around 350–370 and killed in 415 in Alexandria, Egypt. The daughter of the mathematician Theon, she led a renowned school, taught pagan and Christian students alike and advised the city's leaders. She is the best-documented woman mathematician of antiquity.
What did Hypatia teach and write?
She taught Neoplatonic philosophy, in the tradition of Plotinus, together with mathematics and astronomy. According to the Suda she wrote commentaries on Diophantus' Arithmetica and Apollonius' Conics and an astronomical canon; her father credits her with revising part of his commentary on Ptolemy's Almagest. None of her works survives under her name.
Why was Hypatia killed?
In March 415 a Christian mob led by a lector named Peter dragged her from her carriage into a church and killed her, according to the historian Socrates Scholasticus. He blames political jealousy – she was close to the prefect Orestes, who was feuding with Bishop Cyril. Whether Cyril ordered the killing remains disputed.
What did Hypatia look like?
Nobody knows. No ancient portrait survives, and the late-antique philosopher Damascius only calls her exceedingly beautiful. The best-known image, the profile with wavy hair tied back, was drawn by Jules Maurice Gaspard in 1908 for a fictionalised biography – an imagined portrait that has become her face in popular culture.
Did Hypatia really say Reserve your right to think?
No. The line Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all comes from Elbert Hubbard's largely fictional Little Journeys essay of 1908, which put modern rationalist sayings into her mouth. No ancient source preserves a single sentence by Hypatia, so every popular Hypatia quote should be treated with suspicion.
Was Hypatia the first female mathematician?
She is the first woman mathematician whose life and work are reasonably well documented, through the letters of her student Synesius and church histories. Earlier women, such as members of the Pythagorean circle, are linked to mathematics mainly by later tradition. That is why she became a lasting symbol for women in science.
Who is the Hypatia Some Women Just Want to Watch The World Learn design a good gift for?
For maths and science teachers, women in STEM, astronomers, classics and philosophy students, and anyone who believes teaching is a quietly radical act. The design comes as a T-shirt, women's T-shirt, sweatshirt, premium hoodie, mug and sticker.