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General Conference on Weights and Measures

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (abbreviated CGPM from the Conférence générale des poids et mesures) is the supreme authority of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the intergovernmental organization established in 1875 under the terms of the Metre Convention through which member states act together on matters related to measurement science and measurement standards. The CGPM is made up of delegates of the governments of the member states and observers from the Associates of the CGPM. It elects the International Committee for Weights and Measures (abbreviated CIPM from the Comité international des poids et mesures) as the supervisory board of the BIPM to direct and supervise it.

Initially the Metre Convention was only concerned with the kilogram and the metre, but in 1921 the scope of the treaty was extended to accommodate all physical measurements and hence all aspects of the metric system. In 1960 the 11th CGPM approved the International System of Units, usually known as "SI".

The General Conference receives the report of the CIPM on work accomplished; it discusses and examines the arrangements required to ensure the propagation and improvement of the International System of Units (SI); it endorses the results of new fundamental metrological determinations and various scientific resolutions of international scope; and it decides all major issues concerning the organization and development of the BIPM, including its financial endowment.

The CGPM meets in Paris, usually once every four years. The 25th meeting of the CGPM took place from 18 to 20 November 2014, the 26th meeting of the CGPM took place in Versailles from 13 to 16 November 2018, and the 27th meeting of the CGPM took place from 15 to 18 November 2022.

Establishment
On 20 May 1875 an international treaty known as the Convention du Mètre (Metre Convention) was signed by 17 states. This treaty established an international organisation, the Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), has two governing organs:
 * Conférence générale des poids et mesures (CGPM), a plenary meeting of official delegates of member states which is the supreme authority for all actions;
 * Comité international des poids et mesures (CIPM), consisting of elected scientists and metrologists, which prepares and executes the decisions of the CGPM and is responsible for the supervision of the organisation.

The organization has a permanent laboratory and secretariat function (sometimes referred to as the Headquarters), the activities of which include the establishment of the basic standards and scales of the principal physical quantities and maintenance of the international prototype standards.

The CGPM acts on behalf of the governments of its members. In so doing, it elects members to the CIPM, receives reports from the CIPM which it passes on to the governments and national laboratories on member states, examines and where appropriate approves proposals from the CIPM in respect of changes to the International System of Units (SI), approves the budget for the BIPM (over €13 million in 2018) and it decides all major issues concerning the organization and development of the BIPM.

The structure is analogous to that of a stock corporation. The BIPM is the organisation, the CGPM is the general meeting of the shareholders, the CIPM is the board of directors appointed by the CGPM, and the staff at the site in Saint-Cloud perform the day-to-day work.

Membership criteria
The CGPM recognises two classes of membership – full membership for those states that wish to participate in the activities of the BIPM and associate membership for those countries or economies that only wish to participate in the CIPM MRA program. Associate members have observer status at the CGPM. Since all formal liaison between the convention organisations and national governments is handled by the member state's ambassador to France, it is implicit that member states must have diplomatic relations with France, though during both world wars, nations that were at war with France retained their membership of the CGPM. CGPM meetings are chaired by the Président de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris.

Of the twenty countries that attended the Conference of the Metre in 1875, representatives of seventeen signed the convention on 20 May 1875. In April 1884, H. J. Chaney, Warden of Standards in London unofficially contacted the BIPM inquiring whether the BIPM would calibrate some metre standards that had been manufactured in the United Kingdom. Broch, director of the BIPM replied that he was not authorised to perform any such calibrations for non-member states. On 17 September 1884, the British Government signed the convention on behalf of the United Kingdom. This number grew to 21 in 1900, 32 in 1950, and 49 in 2001. , there are 64 Member States and 36 Associate States and Economies of the General Conference (with year of partnership in parentheses):

Member states
Argentina (1877) Australia (1947) Austria (1875) Belarus (2020) Belgium (1875) Brazil (1921) Bulgaria (1911) Canada (1907) Chile (1908) China (1977) Colombia (2012) Costa Rica (2022) Croatia (2008) Czech Republic (1922) Denmark (1875) Ecuador (2019) Egypt (1962) Estonia (2021) Finland (1913) France (1875) Germany (1875) Greece (2001) Hungary (1925) India (1880) Indonesia (1960) Iran (1975) Iraq (2013) Ireland (1925) Israel (1985) Italy (1875) Japan (1885) Kazakhstan (2008) Kenya (2010) Lithuania (2015) Malaysia (2001) Mexico (1890) Montenegro (2018) Morocco (2019) Netherlands (1929) New Zealand (1991) Norway (1875) Pakistan (1973) Poland (1925) Portugal (1876) Romania (1884) Russia (1875) Saudi Arabia (2011) Serbia (2001) Singapore (1994) Slovakia (1922) Slovenia (2016) South Africa (1964) South Korea (1959) Spain (1875) Sweden (1875) Switzerland (1875) Thailand (1912) Tunisia (2012) Turkey (1875) Ukraine (2018) United Arab Emirates (2015) United Kingdom (1884) United States (1878) Uruguay (1908)

Former members
Cameroon (1970–2012) Dominican Republic (1954–2015) North Korea (1982–2012) Peru (1875–1956) Venezuela (1879–1907, 1960–2018)

Associates
At the 21st meeting of the CGPM in October 1999, the category of "associate" was created for states not yet BIPM members and for economic unions.

Albania (2007) Azerbaijan (2015) Bangladesh (2010) Bolivia (2008) Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011) Botswana (2012) Cambodia (2021) Caribbean Community (2005) Chinese Taipei (2002) Ethiopia (2018) Georgia (2008) Ghana (2009) Hong Kong (2000) Jamaica (2003) Kuwait (2018) Latvia (2001) Luxembourg (2014) Malta (2001) Mauritius (2010) Moldova (2007) Mongolia (2013) Namibia (2012) North Macedonia (2006) Oman (2012) Panama (2003) Paraguay (2009) Peru (2009) Philippines (2002) Qatar (2016) Sri Lanka (2007) Syria (2012) Tanzania (2018) Uzbekistan (2018) Vietnam (2003) Zambia (2010) Zimbabwe (2010–2020, 2022)

Former Associates
Cuba (2000–2021) Seychelles (2010–2021) Sudan (2014–2021)

International Committee for Weights and Measures
The International Committee for Weights and Measures consists of eighteen persons, each of a different nationality. elected by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) whose principal task is to promote worldwide uniformity in units of measurement by taking direct action or by submitting proposals to the CGPM.

The CIPM meets every year (since 2011 in two sessions per year) at the Pavillon de Breteuil where, among other matters, it discusses reports presented to it by its Consultative Committees. Reports of the meetings of the CGPM, the CIPM, and all the Consultative Committees, are published by the BIPM.

Mission
The secretariat is based in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

In 1999, the CIPM has established the CIPM Arrangement de reconnaissance mutuelle (Mutual Recognition Arrangement, MRA), which serves as the framework for the mutual acceptance of national measurement standards and for recognition of the validity of calibration and measurement certificates issued by national metrology institutes.

A recent focus area of the CIPM has been the revision of the SI.

Consultative committees
The CIPM has set up a number of consultative committees (CC) to assist it in its work. These committees are under the authority of the CIPM. The president of each committee, who is expected to take the chair at CC meetings, is usually a member of the CIPM. Apart from the CCU, membership of a CC is open to National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) of Member States that are recognized internationally as most expert in the field. NMIs from Member States that are active in the field, but lack the expertise to become Members, are able to attend CC meetings as observers.

These committees are:
 * CCAUV: Consultative Committee for Acoustics, Ultrasound and Vibration
 * CCEM: Consultative Committee for Electricity and Magnetism
 * CCL: Consultative Committee for Length
 * CCM: Consultative Committee for Mass and Related Quantities
 * CCPR: Consultative Committee for Photometry and Radiometry
 * CCQM: Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance – Metrology in Chemistry and Biology
 * CCRI: Consultative Committee for Ionizing Radiation
 * CCT: Consultative Committee for Thermometry
 * CCTF: Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency
 * CCU: Consultative Committee for Units

The CCU's role is to advise on matters related to the development of the SI and the preparation of the SI brochure. It has liaison with other international bodies such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Astronomical Union (IAU), International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and International Commission on Illumination (CIE).

Major reports
Official reports of the CIPM include:
 * Reports of CIPM meetings (Procès-Verbaux) (CIPM Minutes)
 * Annual Report to Governments on the financial and administrative situation of the BIPM
 * Notification of the contributive parts of the Contracting States
 * Convocation to meetings of the CGPM
 * Report of the President of the CIPM to the CGPM

From time to time the CIPM has been charged by the CGPM to undertake major investigations related to activities affecting the CGPM or the BIPM. Reports produced include:

The Blevin Report
The Blevin Report, published in 1998, examined the state of worldwide metrology. The report originated from a resolution passed at the 20th CGPM (October 1995) which committed the CIPM to "study and report on the long-term national and international needs relating to metrology, the appropriate international collaborations and the unique role of the BIPM to meet these needs, and the financial and other commitments that will be required from the Member States in the coming decades." The report identified, amongst other things, a need for closer cooperation between the BIPM and other organisations such as International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) with clearly defined boundaries and interfaces between the organisations. Another major finding was the need for cooperation between accreditation laboratories and the need to involve developing countries in the world of metrology.

The Kaarls Report
The Kaarls Report published in 2003 examined the role of the BIPM in the evolving needs for metrology in trade, industry and society.

SI Brochure
The CIPM has responsibility for commissioning the SI brochure, which is the formal definition of the International system of units. The brochure is produced by the CCU in conjunction with a number of other international organisations. Initially the brochure was only in French – the official language of the metre convention, but recent versions have been published simultaneously in both English and French, with the French text being the official text. The 6th edition was published in 1991, the 7th edition was published in 1998, and the 8th, in 2006. The most recent edition is the 9th edition, originally published as version 1 in 2019 to include the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units (a.k.a. "new SI"); it was updated to version 2 in December 2022 to include the new SI prefixes ronna-, quetta-, ronto- and quecto- introduced in November 2022.


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Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ) is a Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series which aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. It was created and animated by Sunrise, led by a production team of director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno, who are collectively billed as Hajime Yatate.

The series, which ran for twenty-six episodes (dubbed "sessions"), is set in the year 2071, and follows the lives of a traveling bounty-hunting crew aboard a spaceship, the Bebop. Although it incorporates a wide variety of genres, the series draws most heavily from science fiction, Western, and noir films. Its most prominent themes are existential boredom, loneliness, and the inability to escape one's past.

The series was dubbed into English by Animaze and ZRO Limit Productions, and was originally licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment (and is now licensed by Crunchyroll) and in Britain by Beez Entertainment (now by Anime Limited); Madman Entertainment owns the license in Australia and New Zealand. In 2001, it became the first anime title to be broadcast on Adult Swim.

Cowboy Bebop has been hailed as one of the best animated television series of all time. It was a critical and commercial success both in Japanese and international markets, most notably in the United States. It garnered several major anime and science-fiction awards upon its release, and received acclaim from critics and audiences for its style, characters, story, voice acting, animation, and soundtrack. The English dub was particularly lauded and is regarded as one of the best anime English dubs. Credited with helping to introduce anime to a new wave of Western viewers in the early 2000s, Cowboy Bebop has also been called a gateway series for anime as a whole.

Plot
In the year 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway that made Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System. Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty hunters (also referred to as "Cowboys") chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward. The series' protagonists are bounty-hunters working from the spaceship Bebop. The original crew is Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and Jet Black, a former ISSP officer. They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward, an eccentric child, skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence. Throughout the series, the team gets involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them without money, while often confronting faces and events from their past: These include Jet's reasons for leaving the ISSP and Faye's past as a young woman from Earth injured in an accident and cryogenically frozen to save her life.

While much of the show is episodic, the main story arc focuses on Spike and his deadly rivalry with Vicious, an ambitious criminal affiliated with the Red Dragon Syndicate. Spike and Vicious were once partners and friends. Still, when Spike begins an affair with Vicious's girlfriend Julia and resolves to leave the Syndicate with her, Vicious seeks to eliminate Spike by blackmailing Julia into killing him. Julia hides to protect herself and Spike, while Spike fakes his death to escape the Syndicate. In the present, Julia comes out of hiding and reunites with Spike, intending to complete their plan. Vicious, having staged a coup d'état and taken over the Syndicate, sends hitmen after the pair. Julia is killed, leaving Spike alone. Spike leaves the Bebop after finally apologizing to Faye and Jet. Upon infiltrating the syndicate, he finds Vicious on the top floor of the building and confronts him after dispatching the remaining Red Dragon members. The final battle ends with Spike killing Vicious, only to be seriously wounded himself in the ensuing confrontation. Looking up to the sky, Spike sees Julia. The series concludes as Spike descends the main staircase of the building into the rising sun before eventually falling to the ground.

Genre and themes
Watanabe created a special tagline for the series to promote it during its original presentation, calling it "a new genre unto itself". The line was inserted before and after commercial breaks during its Japanese and US broadcasts. Later, Watanabe called the phrase an "exaggeration". The show is a hybrid of multiple genres, including westerns and pulp fiction. One reviewer described it as "space opera meets noir, meets comedy, meets cyberpunk". It has also been called a "genre-busting space Western".

The musical style was emphasized in many of the episode titles. Multiple philosophical themes are explored using the characters, including existentialism, existential boredom, loneliness, and the effect of the past on the protagonists. Other concepts referenced include environmentalism and capitalism. The series also makes specific references to or pastiches multiple films, including the works of John Woo and Bruce Lee, Midnight Run, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alien. The series also includes extensive references and elements from science fiction, bearing strong similarities to the cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson. Several planets and space stations in the series are made in Earth's image. The streets of celestial objects such as Ganymede resemble a modern port city, while Mars features shopping malls, theme parks, casinos and cities. This setting has been described as "one part Chinese diaspora and two parts wild west".

Characters
The characters were created by Watanabe and character designed by Toshihiro Kawamoto. Watanabe envisioned each character as an extension of his own personality, or as an opposite person to himself. Each character, from the main cast to supporting characters, were designed to be outlaws unable to fit into society. Kawamoto designed the characters so they were easily distinguished from one another. All the main cast are characterized by a deep sense of loneliness or resignation to their fate and past. From the perspective of Brian Camp and Julie Davis, the main characters resemble the main characters of the anime series Lupin III, if only superficially, given their more troubled pasts and more complex personalities.

The show focuses on the character of Spike Spiegel (voiced by Kōichi Yamadera), an iconic space cowboy with green hair and often seen wearing a blue suit, with the overall theme of the series being Spike's past and its karmic effect on him. Spike was portrayed as someone who had lost his expectations for the future, having lost the woman he loved, and so was in a near-constant lethargy. Spike's artificial eye was included as Watanabe wanted his characters to have flaws. He was originally going to be given an eyepatch, but this decision was vetoed by producers.

Jet (voiced by Unshō Ishizuka) is shown as someone who lost confidence in his former life and has become cynical about the state of society. Spike and Jet were designed to be opposites, with Spike being thin and wearing smart attire, while Jet was bulky and wore more casual clothing. The clothing, which was dark in color, also reflected their states of mind. Faye Valentine, Edward Wong (voiced by Aoi Tada), and Ein joined the crew in later episodes. Their designs were intended to contrast against Spike. Faye was described by her voice actress Megumi Hayashibara as initially being an "ugly" woman, with her defining traits being her liveliness, sensuality and humanity. To emphasize her situation when first introduced, she was compared to Poker Alice, a famous Western figure.

Edward and Ein were the only main characters to have real-life models. The former had her behavior based on the antics of Yoko Kanno as observed by Watanabe when he first met her. While generally portrayed as carefree and eccentric, Edward is motivated by a sense of loneliness after being abandoned by her father. Kawamoto initially based Ein's design on a friend's pet corgi, later getting one himself to use as a motion model.

Production
Cowboy Bebop was developed by animation studio Sunrise and created by Hajime Yatate, the well-known pseudonym for the collective contributions of Sunrise's animation staff. The leader of the series' creative team was director Shinichirō Watanabe, most notable at the time for directing Macross Plus and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Other leading members of Sunrise's creative team were screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical art designer Kimitoshi Yamane, composer Yoko Kanno, and producers Masahiko Minami and Yoshiyuki Takei. Most of them had previously worked together, in addition to having credits on other popular anime titles. Nobumoto had scripted Macross Plus, Kawamoto had designed the characters for Gundam, and Kanno had composed the music for Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne. Yamane had not worked with Watanabe yet, but his credits in anime included Bubblegum Crisis and The Vision of Escaflowne. Minami joined the project as he wanted to do something different from his previous work on mecha anime.

Concept
Cowboy Bebop was Watanabe's first project as solo director, as he had been co-director in his previous works. His original concept was for a movie, and during production he treated each episode as a miniature movie. His main inspiration for Cowboy Bebop was the first series of the anime Lupin III, a crime drama focusing on the exploits of the series' titular character. When developing the series' story, Watanabe began by creating the characters first. He explained, "the first image that occurred to me was one of Spike, and from there I tried to build a story around him, trying to make him cool." While the original dialogue of the series was kept clean to avoid any profanities, its level of sophistication was made appropriate to adults in a criminal environment. Watanabe described Cowboy Bebop as "80% serious story and 20% humorous touch". The comical episodes were harder for the team to write than the serious ones, and though several events in them seemed random, they were carefully planned in advance. Watanabe conceived the series' ending early on, and each episode involving Spike and Vicious was meant to foreshadow their final confrontation. Some of the staff were unhappy about this approach as a continuation of the series would be difficult. While he considered altering the ending, he eventually settled with his original idea. The reason for creating the ending was that Watanabe did not want the series to become like Star Trek, with him being tied to doing it for years.

Development
The project had initially originated with Bandai's toy division as a sponsor, with the goal of selling spacecraft toys. Watanabe recalled his only instruction was "So long as there's a spaceship in it, you can do whatever you want." But upon viewing early footage, it became clear that Watanabe's vision for the series did not match Bandai's. Believing the series would never sell toy merchandise, Bandai pulled out of the project, leaving it in development hell until sister company Bandai Visual stepped in to sponsor it. Since there was no need to merchandise toys with the property any more, Watanabe had free rein in the development of the series. Watanabe wanted to design not just a space adventure series for adolescent boys but a program that would also appeal to sophisticated adults. During the making of Bebop, Watanabe often attempted to rally the animation staff by telling them that the show would be something memorable up to three decades later. While some of them were doubtful of that at the time, Watanabe many years later expressed his happiness to have been proven right in retrospect. He joked that if Bandai Visual had not intervened then "you might be seeing me working the supermarket checkout counter right now."

The city locations were generally inspired by the cities of New York and Hong Kong. The atmospheres of the planets and the ethnic groups in Cowboy Bebop mostly originated from Watanabe's ideas, with some collaboration from set designers Isamu Imakake, Shoji Kawamori, and Dai Satō. The animation staff established the particular planet atmospheres early in the production of the series before working on the ethnic groups. It was Watanabe who wanted to have several groups of ethnic diversity appear in the series. Mars was the planet most often used in Cowboy Bebop storylines, with Satoshi Toba, the cultural and setting producer, explaining that the other planets "were unexpectedly difficult to use". He stated that each planet in the series had unique features, and the producers had to take into account the characteristics of each planet in the story. For the final episode, Toba explained that it was not possible for the staff to have the dramatic rooftop scene occur on Venus, so the staff "ended up normally falling back to Mars". In creating the backstory, Watanabe envisioned a world that was "multinational rather than stateless". In spite of certain American influences in the series, he stipulated that the country had been destroyed decades prior to the story, later saying the notion of the United States as the center of the world repelled him.

Music
The music for Cowboy Bebop was composed by Yoko Kanno. Kanno formed the blues and jazz band Seatbelts to perform the series' music. According to Kanno, the music was one of the first aspects of the series to begin production, before most of the characters, story, or animation had been finalized. The genres she used for its composition were western, opera, and jazz. Watanabe noted that Kanno did not score the music exactly the way he told her to. He stated, "She gets inspired on her own, follows up on her own imagery, and comes to me saying 'this is the song we need for Cowboy Bebop', and composes something completely on her own." Kanno herself was sometimes surprised at how pieces of her music were used in scenes, sometimes wishing it had been used elsewhere, though she also felt that none of their uses were "inappropriate". She was pleased with the working environment, finding the team very relaxed in comparison with other teams she had worked with.

Watanabe further explained that he would take inspiration from Kanno's music after listening to it and create new scenes for the story from it. These new scenes in turn would inspire Kanno and give her new ideas for the music and she would come to Watanabe with even more music. Watanabe cited as an example, "some songs in the second half of the series, we didn't even ask her for those songs, she just made them and brought them to us." He commented that while Kanno's method was normally "unforgivable and unacceptable", it was ultimately a "big hit" with Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe described his collaboration with Kanno as "a game of catch between the two of us in developing the music and creating the TV series Cowboy Bebop". Since the series' broadcast, Kanno and the Seatbelts have released seven original soundtrack albums, two singles and EPs, and two compilations through label Victor Entertainment.

Weapons
The guns on the show were chosen by the director, Watanabe, and in discussion with set designer, Isamu Imakake, and mechanical designer, Kimitoshi Yamane. Setting producer, Satoshi Toba said, "They talked about how they didn't want common guns, because that wouldn't be very interesting, and so they decided on these guns."

Broadcast
Cowboy Bebop debuted on TV Tokyo, one of the main broadcasters of anime in Japan, airing from April 3 until June 26, 1998. Due to its 6:00 p.m. timeslot and depictions of graphic violence, the show's first run only included episodes 2, 3, 7 to 15, 18 and a special. Later that year, the series was shown in its entirety from October 23 until April 24, 1999, on satellite network Wowow. The full series has also been broadcast across Japan by anime television network Animax, which has also aired the series via its respective networks across Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia.

The first non-Asian country to air Cowboy Bebop was Italy. There, it was first aired on October 21, 1999, on MTV, where it inaugurated the 9:00–10:30 p.m. Anime Night programming block.

In the United States, Cowboy Bebop was one of the programs shown when Cartoon Network's late night block Adult Swim debuted on September 2, 2001, being the first anime shown on the block that night at midnight ET. During its original run on Adult Swim, episodes 6, 8, and 22 were skipped due to their violent themes in wake of the September 11 attacks. By the third run of the series, all these episodes had premiered for the first time. Cowboy Bebop was successful enough to be broadcast repeatedly for four years. It has been run at least once every year since 2007, and HD remasters of the show began broadcasting in 2015. In the United Kingdom, it was first broadcast in 2002 on the adult-oriented channel CNX. From November 6, 2007, it was repeated on AnimeCentral until the channel's closure in August 2008. In Australia, Cowboy Bebop was first broadcast on pay television in 2002 on Adult Swim, and on free-to-air-TV on ABC2 (the national digital public television channel) on January 2, 2007. It has been repeated several times, most recently starting in 2008. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie also aired on February 23, 2009, on SBS (a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting television network). In Canada, Cowboy Bebop was first broadcast on December 24, 2006, on Razer.

In Latin America, the series was first broadcast on pay-TV in 2001 on Locomotion. It aired again on January 9, 2016 on I.Sat.

Home media
Cowboy Bebop has been released in four separate editions in North America.

The first release was sold in VHS format either as a box set or as seven individual tapes. The tapes were sold through Anime Village, a division of Bandai.

In the late 1990s, Manga Entertainment purchased the rights to Cowboy Bebop with plans to release the English-dubbed PAL version on VHS; however, this was never realized.

The second release was sold in 2000 individually, and featured uncut versions of the original 26 episodes. In 2001, these DVDs were collected in the special edition Perfect Sessions which included the first 6 DVDs, the first Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, and a collector's box. At the time of release, the art box from the Perfect Sessions was made available for purchase on The Right Stuff International as a solo item for collectors who already owned the series.

The third release, The Best Sessions, was sold in 2002 and featured what Bandai considered to be the best 6 episodes of the series remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound.

The fourth release, Cowboy Bebop Remix, was also distributed on 6 discs and included the original 26 uncut episodes, with sound remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 and video remastered under the supervision of Shinichiro Watanabe. This release also included various extras that were not present in the original release. Cowboy Bebop Remix was itself collected as the Cowboy Bebop Remix: The Complete Collection in 2008.

In December 2012, newly founded distributor Anime Limited announced via Facebook and Twitter that they had acquired the home video license for the United Kingdom. Part 1 of the Blu-ray collection was released on July 29, 2013, while Part 2 was released on October 14. The standard DVD Complete Collection was originally meant to be released on September 23, 2013 with Part 2 of the Blu-ray release but due to mastering and manufacturing errors, the Complete Collection was delayed until November 27. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment in 2012, Funimation and Sunrise had announced that they rescued Cowboy Bebop, along with a handful of other former Bandai Entertainment properties, for home video and digital release. Funimation released the series on Blu-ray and DVD on December 16, 2014. The series was released in four separate editions: standard DVD, standard Blu-ray, an Amazon.com exclusive Blu-ray/DVD combo, and a Funimation.com exclusive Blu-ray/DVD combo.

Crunchyroll released a limited edition Blu-ray box set on April 4, 2023 for its 25th anniversary.

Streaming
Netflix acquired the streaming rights to the original anime, with all 26 episodes available worldwide as of October 21, 2021. The series is also available on Hulu and Funimation in the United States. On March 1, 2022, the anime became available on Crunchyroll to consolidate both Funimation and Wakanim into the service.

Manga
Two Cowboy Bebop manga series adaptations have been released, both published by Kadokawa Shoten and serialized in Asuka Fantasy DX. The first manga series, titled Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star and illustrated by Cain Kuga, was serialized from October issue 1997, before the anime series' release, to July issue 1998. It was collected into two volumes in 1998, the first one in May and the second one in September. The second manga series, simply titled Cowboy Bebop and illustrated by Yutaka Nanten, was serialized from November issue 1998 to March issue 2000. It was collected into three volumes, the first two in April and October 1999 and the third one in April 2000. Both manga series were licensed by Tokyopop for release in North America.

Video games
A Cowboy Bebop video game, developed and published by Bandai, was released in Japan for the PlayStation on May 14, 1998. A PlayStation 2 video game, Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Serenade, was released in Japan on August 25, 2005, and an English version had been set for release in North America. However, in January 2007, IGN reported that the release had likely been cancelled, speculating that it did not survive Bandai's merger with Namco to Bandai Namco Games.

In 2022, Cowboy Bebop made its debut in the Bandai Namco crossover game Super Robot Wars T, which is traditionally focused on turn based mecha combat. In 2024, skins based on Cowboy Bebop characters were added to Blizzard Entertainment first-person shooter Overwatch 2.

Film
An anime film titled Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, (カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉) known in English as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, was released in Japan in September 2001 and in the United States in August 2002.

On July 22, 2008, If published an article on its website regarding a rumor of a live-action Cowboy Bebop movie in development by 20th Century Fox. Producer Erwin Stoff said that the film's development was in the early stages, and that they had "just signed it". Keanu Reeves was to play the role of Spike Spiegel. Variety confirmed on January 15, 2009 that production company Sunrise Animation would be "closely involved with the development of the English-language project". The site also confirmed Kenji Uchida, Shinichirō Watanabe and series writer Keiko Nobumoto as associate producers, series producer Masahiko Minami as a production consultant, and Peter Craig as screenwriter. This was lauded by various sources as a promising move for the potential quality of the film. At the time it was slated to release in 2011, but problems with the budget delayed its production. The submitted script was sent back for rewrite to reduce the cost and little has been heard about it since an interview with producer Joshua Long on October 15, 2010; the project currently languishes in development hell. On October 25, 2014, series director Watanabe was asked about the live-action film at the MCM London Comicon. He stated: "I'm afraid I don't know what they're thinking in Hollywood. Apparently the project hasn't come to a stop but I don't know how it's going to progress from here on. I hear that there are a lot of 'Hollywood' problems."

Live-action series
In 2017, it was announced that an American live-action adaptation of the series was being developed by Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios, with executive production by Sunrise Inc. Christopher Yost was to write the series, and Netflix announced that it would distribute it. On April 4, 2019, Variety reported that John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda and Alex Hassell had been cast. Production was shut down in October 2019 due to a knee injury sustained by Cho, setting production back by more than six months. On April 17, 2020, it was revealed that the episodes would be an hour long. On May 19, 2020, Adelstein revealed that there were three finished episodes and that they had shot at least six episodes before Cho's knee injury. In the same interview it was revealed that the director of the anime series, Shinichirō Watanabe, had been hired as a creative consultant. Production in New Zealand resumed on September 30, 2020, following a COVID-19 lockdown in the country. The series was released on November 19, 2021 to mixed reviews. On December 9, 2021, it was announced that it would not be renewed for a second season, with Netflix cancelling it entirely.

Other media
An official side story titled Cowboy Bebop: UT tells the story of Ural and Victoria Terpsichore (V.T. from the session "Heavy Metal Queen") when they were bounty-hunters. The story was available in its own official site, however the website was closed and is currently available at the site mirror.

A deck-building board game, Cowboy Bebop: Space Serenade, was released in 2019.

Critical reception
Cowboy Bebop received unanimous acclaim, beginning at the time of its initial broadcast. Beginning in 1998, Japanese critic Keith Rhee highlighted the series as a standout in an otherwise "run-of-the-mill" season, praising its overall production values, and singling out Kanno's soundtrack as "a much-welcome change from all the sugary J-pop tunes of most anime features". Rhee also highlighted the show's Japanese "all-star cast", which his colleague Mark L. Johnson described as being filled with "veteran voice talent", turning in even greater performances than those of their "above average" US counterparts. In 1999, Australian magazine Hyper reviewed the anime and rated it 9.5 out of 10.

Anime News Network's Mike Crandol gave the series an 'A+' rating for the dubbed version, and an 'A' rating for the subbed version. He characterized the series as "one of the most popular and respected anime titles in history", before adding that it was "a unique television show which skillfully transcends all kinds of genres". Crandol praised its characters as "some of the most endearing characters to ever grace an anime", and commended the voice acting, especially the "flawless English cast". He also complimented the series' "movie-quality" animation, "sophisticated" writing, and its "incredible" musical score. Crandol hailed Cowboy Bebop as a "landmark" anime "that will be remembered long after many others have been forgotten", and went on to call it "one of the greatest anime titles ever". Additionally, Michael Toole of Anime News Network named Cowboy Bebop as one of the most important anime of the 1990s.

T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews gave the entire series a perfect score of 5 out of 5 stars, with reviewer Christina Carpenter believing Cowboy Bebop as "one of the best [anime]" and touting it as a masterpiece that "puts most anime...and Hollywood, to shame". She described it as a "very stylish, beautifully crafted series that deserves much more attention than it gets". Carpenter praised the animation as "a rarity and a marvel to behold" and that it was "beyond superb", and the plot and characterization as having "a sophistication and subtlety that is practically one-of-a-kind". She also praised the soundtrack, and hailed the opening theme as one of the best intro pieces she had ever heard. Carpenter went to say that Bebop was a "must-have for any serious collector of Japanese animation".

In his article "Asteroid Blues: The Lasting Legacy of Cowboy Bebop", The Atlantic writer Alex Suskind states, "On paper, Cowboy Bebop, the legendary cult anime series from Shinichirō Watanabe, reads like something John Wayne, Elmore Leonard, and Philip K. Dick came up with during a wild, all-night whiskey bender." He goes on to write, "The response from critics and fans may have sounded hyperbolic—the word 'masterpiece' was thrown around a great deal—but the praise was justified. First-time solo director Watanabe had created a gorgeous tale of morality, romance, and violence–a dark look at the lives of outlaws that's shot like an independent film."

In January 2015, television writer Kyle Mills of DVD Talk awarded the series five stars upon review. He stated, "Regardless of the medium, be it live action television, film, or animation, Cowboy Bebop is simply one of the finest examples of storytelling ever created." In his review, he describes the finale as "one of the best in television history", referring to it as a "widely revered" ending that "still sparks fan conversation, resonating with viewers 15 years on". He closes by writing, "Cowboy Bebop ends with a bang."

In his 2018 review of the series, Paste critic John Maher wrote, "It feels like a magnum opus produced at the pinnacle of a long career despite being, almost unbelievably, Watanabe's first series as a director. It is a masterwork that should justly rank among the best works of television of all time." It was also placed at #1 on the publication's list of the "50 Best Anime Series of All Time".

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 100% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Blending a head-spinning array of genres and references, Cowboy Bebop is an anime television classic that must be experienced."

In an April 2019 interview with Diego Molano, creator of Victor & Valentino, he said that Cowboy Bebop was the first anime he "obsessed over", as he spent time tracking down VHS tapes of the show in high school. He also argued that this series showed him "how cinematic and emotional animation can be".

Accolades
In the 1999 Anime Grand Prix awards for the anime of 1998, Cowboy Bebop won two first place awards: Spike Spiegel was awarded the best male character; and Megumi Hayashibara was awarded the best voice actor for her role as Faye Valentine. Cowboy Bebop also received rankings in other categories: the series itself was awarded the second best anime series; Faye Valentine and Ed were ranked the fifth and ninth best female characters respectively; "Tank!" and "The Real Folk Blues" were ranked the third and fifteenth best songs respectively; and "Ballad of Fallen Angels", "Speak Like a Child", "Jamming with Edward" and "Mish-Mash Blues" were ranked the second, eighth, eighteenth and 20th best episodes respectively.

In the 2000 Anime Grand Prix awards for the anime of 1999, Cowboy Bebop won the same two first place awards again: best male character for Spike Spiegel; and best voice actor for Megumi Hayashibara. Other rankings the series received are: second best anime series; sixth best female character for Faye Valentine; seventh and twelfth best song for "Tank!" and "Blue" respectively; and third and seventeenth best episode for "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)" and "Hard Luck Woman" respectively. In the 2000 Seiun Awards, Cowboy Bebop was awarded for Best Media of the Year.

A 2004 poll in Newtype USA, the US edition of the Japanese magazine Newtype, asked its readers to vote the "Top 25 Anime Titles of All Time"; Cowboy Bebop ranked second on the list (after Neon Genesis Evangelion), placing it as one of the most socially relevant and influential anime series ever created. During that same year, Cinefantastique listed the anime as one of the "10 Essential Animations", citing the series' "gleeful mix of noir-style, culture-hopping inclusiveness and music". In 2007, the American Anime magazine Anime Insider listed the "50 Best Anime Ever" by compiling lists of industry regulars and magazine staff, and ranked Cowboy Bebop as the #1 anime of all time. In 2012, Madman Entertainment compiled the votes of fans online for "The Top 20 Madman Anime Titles" and ranked Cowboy Bebop at seventh.

Cowboy Bebop has been featured in several lists published by IGN. In the 2009 "Top 100 Animated TV Series" list, Cowboy Bebop, labelled as "a very original – and arguably one of the best – anime", was placed fourteenth, making it the second highest ranking anime on the list (after Evangelion) and one of the most influential series of the 1990s. In 2011, Bebop was ranked 29th in the "Top 50 Sci-Fi TV Shows" list, once again being the second highest ranking anime on the list (after Evangelion). In 2006, Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack was ranked first in "Top Ten Anime Themes and Soundtracks of All-Time" list, with the series being commented as "one of the best anime ever and certainly is tops when it comes to music." Spike Spiegel was ranked fourth place in the "Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time" article. IGN Movies also placed Cowboy Bebop in their list of "10 Cartoon Adaptations We'd Like to See".

Analysis
The series has been subject to study and analysis since its debut, with the main focus being on its style and mixture of genres. Miguel Douglas, describing the series style in a review, said that "the series distinctly establishes itself outside the realm of conventional Japanese animation and instead chooses to forge its own path. With a setting within the realm of science fiction, the series wisely offers a world that seems entirely realistic considering our present time. Free from many of the elements that accompany science fiction in general—whether that be space aliens, giant robots, or laser guns—the series delegates itself towards presenting a world that is quite similar to our own albeit showcasing some technological advances." Daryl Surat of Otaku USA, commenting on the series' appeal, said that it was "that rare breed of science-fiction: 'accessible'. Unlike many anime titles, viewers weren't expected to have knowledge of Japanese culture—character names, signs, and the like were primarily in English to begin with—or have seen any other anime series prior." Michelle Onley Pirkle, in her book Science Fiction Film, Television, and Adaptation: Across the Screens, said that "Cowboy Bebop is taking a new take on genre, not by creating unique images and sounds, but by playing 'freely' with, 'remixing', or adapting the images and sounds of other familiar genres in a dynamic way." Robert Baigent, writing for the Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, said that the series' appeal likely stemmed from the trend in anime to emulate Western fiction.

Legacy
In March 2009, the print and web editions of The Onion's The A.V. Club called Cowboy Bebop "rightly a huge hit", and listed it as a gateway series to understanding the medium of anime as a whole. Suskind said: "It was unlike anything the genre had seen before. It even approached its music differently. The show kicked off with a wormhole of a theme song, and the soundtrack moves so seamlessly through genres, from rock to country to pop to jazz to funk, it's shocking to learn that one set of musicians is behind it all". In an interview, producer Sean Akins also states that the series "created a whole new world". "It's hard for me to quantify the impact that I think it has had. It changed anime. I think people began to think about what shows would be cool. I think it redefined cool within animation, not only in Japan but in the States". One of the series' main animators, Tensai Okamura, went on to create his own anime in 2007: Darker than Black. Okamura used his experience from Cowboy Bebop to write the screenplay of Darker than Black, leading to narratives composed of two episodes similar to Japanese dramas.

American film director, screenwriter, and producer Rian Johnson has cited Cowboy Bebop as a visual influence on his films, most notably Brick. Ender's Game writer Orson Scott Card also praised the series. He states that the series is "better than most sci-fi films out there". He goes on to say that he "found this series brilliant, but what held me was a combination of strong relationship-based storytelling, a moody visual style that never got old and really smart dialogue".

After the creation of the series, an interviewer asked Watanabe if he had any plans to create more Cowboy Bebop material. Watanabe responded by saying that he does not believe that he "should just keep on making Cowboy Bebop sequels for the sake of it". Watanabe added that ending production and "to quit while we're ahead when people still want more" is more "in keeping with the Bebop spirit". In a more recent interview from 2006 with The Daily Texan, Watanabe was asked if there would ever be more Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe's answer was "someday...maybe, someday".

In May 2020, composer Mason Lieberman, who has never actually seen Cowboy Bebop, partnered with Sunrise and Funimation to produce an official Cowboy Bebop charity track for COVID-19 relief. This track was released on vinyl and featured the return of original series composer Yōko Kanno, original recording band The Seatbelts, and a collection of forty other special musical guests.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cowboy Bebop


text:
Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 150 – c. 215 AD), was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially stopped any veneration of Clement of Alexandria in the 10th century. Nonetheless, he is still often referred to as "Saint Clement of Alexandria" by both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic authors.

Biography
Neither Clement's birthdate or birthplace is known with any degree of certainty. It is speculated that he was born sometime around 150 AD. According to Epiphanius of Salamis, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth.

His parents were pagans and Clement was a convert to Christianity. In the Protrepticus he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek religion and mystery religions, which could have arisen only from the practice of his family's religion.

Having rejected paganism as a young man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt. Clement's journeys were primarily a religious undertaking. In Greece, he encountered an Ionian theologian, who has been identified as Athenagoras of Athens; while in the east, he was taught by an Assyrian, sometimes identified with Tatian, and a Jew, possibly Theophilus of Caesarea.

In around 180 AD, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, but controversy exists about whether the institutions of the school were formalized in this way before the time of Origen. Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clement's personal life in Alexandria. He may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings.

During the Severian persecution of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria. In 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. He died c. 215 AD at an unknown location.

Trilogy
Three of Clement's major works have survived in full and they are collectively referred to as a trilogy:
 * The Protrepticus (Exhortation) – written c. 195 AD
 * The Paedagogus (Tutor) – written c. 198 AD
 * The Stromata (Miscellanies) – written c. 198 AD–c. 203 AD

Protrepticus
The Protrepticus (Προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας: "Exhortation to the Greeks") is, as its title suggests, an exhortation to the pagans of Greece to adopt Christianity. Within it, Clement demonstrates his extensive knowledge of pagan mythology and theology. It is chiefly important due to Clement's exposition of religion as an anthropological phenomenon. After a short philosophical discussion, it opens with a history of Greek religion in seven stages. Clement suggests that at first, humans mistakenly believed the Sun, the Moon, and other heavenly bodies to be deities. The next developmental stage was the worship of the products of agriculture, from which he contends the cults of Demeter and Dionysus arose. Humans then paid reverence to revenge and deified human feelings of love and fear, among others. In the following stage, the poets Hesiod and Homer attempt to enumerate the deities; Hesiod's Theogony giving the number of twelve. Finally, humans reached a stage when they proclaimed others, such as Asclepius and Heracles, as deities. Discussing idolatry, Clement contends that the objects of primitive religion were unshaped wood and stone, and idols thus arose when such natural items were carved. Following Plato, Clement is critical of all forms of visual art, suggesting that artworks are but illusions and "deadly toys".

Clement criticizes Greek paganism in the Protrepticus on the basis that its deities are both false and poor moral examples. He attacks the mystery religions for their ritualism and mysticism. In particular, the worshippers of Dionysus are ridiculed by him for their family-based rituals (such as the use of children's toys in ceremony). He suggests at some points that the pagan deities are based on humans, but at other times he suggests that they are misanthropic demons, and he cites several classical sources in support of this second hypothesis. Clement, like many pre-Nicene church fathers, writes favourably about Euhemerus and other rationalist philosophers, on the grounds that they at least saw the flaws in paganism. However, his greatest praise is reserved for Plato, whose apophatic views of God prefigure Christianity.

The figure of Orpheus is prominent throughout the Protrepticus narrative, and Clement contrasts the song of Orpheus, representing pagan superstition, with the divine Logos of Christ. According to Clement, through conversion to Christianity alone can one fully participate in the Logos, which is universal truth.

Paedagogus
The title of Paedagogus, translatable as "tutor", refers to Christ as the teacher of all humans, and it features an extended metaphor of Christians as children. It is not simply instructional: Clement intends to show how the Christian should respond to the Love of God authentically. Following Plato (Republic 4:441), he divides life into three elements: character, actions, and passions. The first having been dealt with in the Protrepticus, he devotes the Paedagogus to reflections on Christ's role in teaching humans to act morally and to control their passions. Despite its explicitly Christian nature, Clement's work draws on Stoic philosophy and pagan literature; Homer, alone, is cited more than sixty times in the work.

Although Christ, like a human, is made in the image of God, he alone shares the likeness of God the Father. Christ is both sinless and apathetic, and thus by striving to imitate Christ, one can achieve salvation. To Clement, sin is involuntary, and thus irrational (άλογον), removed only through the wisdom of the Logos. God's guidance away from sin is thus a manifestation of God's universal love for mankind. The word play on λόγος and άλογον is characteristic of Clement's writing, and may be rooted in the Epicurean belief that relationships between words are deeply reflective of relationships between the objects they signify.

Clement argues for the equality of sexes, on the grounds that salvation is extended to all humans equally. Unusually, he suggests that Christ is neither female nor male, and that God the Father has both female and male aspects: the eucharist is described as milk from the breast (Christ) of the Father. Clement is supportive of women playing an active role in the leadership of the church and he provides a list of women he considers inspirational, which includes both Biblical and Classical Greek figures. It has been suggested that Clement's progressive views on gender as set out in the Paedagogus were influenced by Gnosticism, however, later in the work, he argues against the Gnostics that faith, not esoteric knowledge (γνῶσις), is required for salvation. According to Clement, it is through faith in Christ that one is enlightened and comes to know God.

In the second book, Clement provides practical rules on living a Christian life. He argues against overindulgence in food and in favour of good table manners. While prohibiting drunkenness, he promotes the drinking of alcohol in moderation following 1 Timothy 5:23. Clement argues for a simple way of life in accordance with the innate simplicity of Christian monotheism. He condemns elaborate and expensive furnishings and clothing, and argues against overly passionate music and perfumes, but Clement does not believe in the abandonment of worldly pleasures and argues that the Christian should be able to express joy in God's creation through gaiety and partying. He opposes the wearing of garlands, because the picking of the flowers ultimately kills a beautiful creation of God, and the garland resembles the crown of thorns.

Clement treats sex at some length. He argues that both promiscuity and sexual abstinence are unnatural, and that the main goal of human sexuality is procreation. He argues that adultery, coitus with pregnant women, concubinage, homosexuality, and prostitution all should be avoided as they will not contribute toward the generation of legitimate offspring.

In his third book, Clement continues along a similar vein, condemning cosmetics on the grounds that it is one's soul, not the body, one should seek to beautify. Clement also opposes the dyeing of men's hair and male depilation as being effeminate. He advises choosing one's company carefully, to avoid being corrupted by immoral people, and while arguing that material wealth is no sin in itself, it is too likely to distract one from the infinitely more important spiritual wealth that is found in Christ. The work finishes with selections of scripture supporting Clement's argument, and following a prayer, the lyrics of a hymn.

Stromata

The contents of the Stromata, as its title suggests, are miscellaneous. Its place in the trilogy is disputed – Clement initially intended to write the Didasculus, a work that would complement the practical guidance of the Paedagogus with a more intellectual schooling in theology. The Stromata is less systematic and ordered than Clement's other works, and it has been theorized by André Méhat that it was intended for a limited, esoteric readership. Although Eusebius wrote of the eight books of the work, only seven undoubtedly survive. Photius, writing in the 9th century, found various text appended to manuscripts of the seven canonical books, which led Daniel Heinsius to suggest that the original eighth book is lost, and he identified the text purported to be from the eighth book as fragments of the Hypotyposes.

The first book starts on the topic of Greek philosophy. Consistent with his other writing, Clement affirms that philosophy had a propaedeutic role for the Greeks, similar to the function of the law for the Jews. He then embarks on a discussion of the origins of Greek culture and technology, arguing that most of the important figures in the Greek world were foreigners, and that Jewish culture was the most significant influence on Greece. In an attempt to demonstrate the primacy of Moses, Clement gives an extended chronology of the world, wherein he dates the birth of Christ to 25 April or May, 4–2 BC, and the creation of the world to 5592 BC. The books ends with a discussion on the origin of languages and the possibility of a Jewish influence on Plato.

The second book is largely devoted to the respective roles of faith and philosophical argument. Clement contends that while both are important, the fear of God is foremost, because through faith one receives divine wisdom. To Clement, scripture is an innately true primitive philosophy that is complemented by human reason through the Logos. Faith is voluntary, and the decision to believe is a crucial fundamental step in becoming closer to God. It is never irrational, as it is founded on the knowledge of the truth of the Logos, but all knowledge proceeds from faith, as first principles are unprovable outside a systematic structure.

The third book covers asceticism. He discusses marriage, which is treated similarly in the Paedagogus. Clement rejects the Gnostic opposition to marriage, arguing that only men who are uninterested in women should remain celibate, and that sex is a positive good if performed within marriage for the purposes of procreation. He argues that this has not always been so: the Fall occurred because Adam and Eve succumbed to their desire for each other, and copulated before the allotted time. He argues against the idea that Christians should reject their family for an ascetic life, which stems from Luke, contending that Jesus would not have contradicted the precept to "Honour thy Father and thy Mother", one of the Ten Commandments. Clement concludes that asceticism will only be rewarded if the motivation is Christian in nature, and thus the asceticism of non-Christians such as the gymnosophists is pointless.

Clement begins the fourth book with a belated explanation of the disorganized nature of the work, and gives a brief description of his aims for the remaining three or four books. The fourth book focuses on martyrdom. While all good Christians should be unafraid of death, Clement condemns those who actively seek out a martyr's death, arguing that they do not have sufficient respect for God's gift of life. He is ambivalent about whether any believing Christians can become martyrs by virtue of the manner of their death, or whether martyrdom is reserved for those who have lived exceptional lives. Marcionites cannot become martyrs, because they do not believe in the divinity of God the Father, so their sufferings are in vain. There is then a digression to the subject of theological epistemology. According to Clement, there is no way of empirically testing the existence of God the Father, because the Logos has revelatory, not analysable meaning, although Christ was an object of the senses. God had no beginning, and is the universal first principle.

The fifth book returns to the subject of faith. Clement argues that truth, justice, and goodness can be seen only by the mind, not the eye; faith is a way of accessing the unseeable. He stresses that knowledge of God can only be achieved through faith once one's moral faults have been corrected. This parallels Clement's earlier insistence that martyrdom can only be achieved by those who practice their faith in Christ through good deeds, not those who simply profess their faith. God transcends matter entirely, and thus the materialist cannot truly come to know God. Although Christ was God incarnate, it is spiritual, not physical comprehension of him that is important.

In the beginning of the sixth book, Clement intends to demonstrate that the works of Greek poets were derived from the prophetic books of the Bible. In order to reinforce his position that the Greeks were inclined toward plagiarism, he cites numerous instances of such inappropriate appropriation by classical Greek writers, reported second-hand from On Plagiarism, an anonymous 3rd-century BC work sometimes ascribed to Aretades. Clement then digresses to the subject of sin and hell, arguing that Adam was not perfect when created, but given the potential to achieve perfection. He espouses broadly universalist doctrine, holding that Christ's promise of salvation is available to all, even those condemned to hell.

The final extant book begins with Clement arguing that his version of Gnosticism (what he calls the ‘Christian gnostic’ earlier in Stromata ) is the true religion and states they should be an example of what a true Christian is, even saying they are "holy and pious" and "worships the true God in a manner worthy of him". Clement then gives a description of the nature of Christ, and that of the true Christian, who aims to be as similar as possible to both the Father and the Son. Clement then criticizes the simplistic anthropomorphism of most ancient religions, quoting Xenophanes' famous description of African, Thracian, and Egyptian deities. He indicates that the Greek deities may also have had their origins in the personification of material objects: Ares representing iron, and Dionysus wine. Prayer, and the relationship between love and knowledge are then discussed. Corinthians 13:8 seems to contradict the characterization of the true Christian as one who knows; but to Clement knowledge vanishes only in that it is subsumed by the universal love expressed by the Christian in reverence for the Creator. Following Socrates, he argues that vice arises from a state of ignorance, not from intention. The Christian is a "laborer in God's vineyard", responsible both for one's own path to salvation and that of one's neighbor. The work ends with an extended passage against the contemporary divisions and heresies within the church.

Other works
Besides the great trilogy, Clement's only other extant work is the treatise Salvation for the Rich, also known as Who is the Rich Man who is Saved? written c. 203 AD Having begun with a scathing criticism of the corrupting effects of money and misguided servile attitudes toward the wealthy, Clement discusses the implications of Mark 10:25. The rich are either unconvinced by the promise of eternal life, or unaware of the conflict between the possession of material and spiritual wealth, and the good Christian has a duty to guide them toward a better life through the Gospel. Jesus' words are not to be taken literally — the supercelestial (ὑπερουράνιος) meanings should be sought in which the true route to salvation is revealed. The holding of material wealth in itself is not a wrong, so long as it is used charitably, but Christians should be careful not to let their wealth dominate their spirit. It is more important to give up sinful passions than external wealth. If the rich are to be saved, all they must do is to follow the two commandments, and while material wealth is of no value to God, it can be used to alleviate the suffering of neighbors.

Other known works exist in fragments alone, including the four eschatological works in the secret tradition: Hypotyposes, Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae Propheticae, and the Adumbraetiones. These cover Clement's celestial hierarchy, a complex schema in which the universe is headed by the Face of God, below which lie seven protoctists, followed by archangels, angels, and humans. According to Jean Daniélou, this schema is inherited from a Judaeo-Christian esotericism, followed by the Apostles, which was only imparted orally to those Christians who could be trusted with such mysteries. The proctocists are the first beings created by God, and act as priests to the archangels. Clement identifies them both as the "Eyes of the Lord" and with the Thrones. Clement characterizes the celestial forms as entirely different from anything earthly, although he argues that members of each order only seem incorporeal to those of lower orders. According to the Eclogae Propheticae, every thousand years every member of each order moves up a degree, and thus humans can become angels. Even the protoctists can be elevated, although their new position in the hierarchy is not clearly defined. The apparent contradiction between the fact that there can be only seven protoctists but also a vast number of archangels to be promoted to their order is problematical. One modern solution regards the story as an example of "interiorized apocalypticism": imagistic details are not to be taken literally, but as symbolizing interior transformation.

The titles of several lost works are known because of a list in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, 6.13.1–3. They include the Outlines, in eight books, and Against Judaizers. Others are known only from mentions in Clement's own writings, including On Marriage and On Prophecy, although few are attested by other writers and it is difficult to separate works that he intended to write from those that were completed.

The Mar Saba letter was attributed to Clement by Morton Smith, but there remains much debate today over whether it is an authentic letter from Clement, an ancient pseudepigraph, or a modern forgery. If authentic, its main significance would be in its relating that the Apostle Mark came to Alexandria from Rome and there, wrote a more spiritual Gospel, which he entrusted to the Church in Alexandria on his death; if genuine, the letter pushes back the tradition related by Eusebius connecting Mark with Alexandria by a century.

Legacy
Eusebius, the fourth-century early church historian, is the first writer to provide an account of Clement's life and works, in his Ecclesiastical History, 5.11.1–5, 6.6.1 He provides a list of Clement's works, biographical information, and an extended quotation from the Stromata. From this and other accounts, it is evident that Clement was highly revered by his contemporaries and later patristic figures. As J.B. Mayor observes, “The piety and learning of Clement, his power as a teacher and philosopher, are spoken of in the highest terms by succeeding fathers.”

In the same work, Eusebius cites Alexander of Jerusalem (180-251) lauding “the holy Clement, who was both my master and benefactor,” describing him as one of the “blessed fathers who have trod the path before us,” while Eusebius himself is quoted as calling him “an incomparable master of Christian philosophy.” Jerome (342-420) calls Clement “the most learned of men,” recording that his writings are “full of eloquence and learning, both in sacred Scripture and in secular literature.” The aforementioned Alexander of Jerusalem is quoted by Jerome praising “the blessed presbyter Clement, a man illustrious and approved.” According to Theodoret (393-450), “he surpassed all others, and was a holy man.” Likewise, Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) says Clement was “a man admirably learned and skillful, and one that searched to the depths all the learning of the Greeks, with an exactness rarely attained before.” Maximus the Confessor (580-662) refers to him reverentially as “the great Clement.”

More recently, scholars have acknowledged Clement's primacy and importance in various respects. He has been called “the first Christian scholar” (Shelley), “the first systematic teacher of Christian doctrine” (Patrick), “the first great teacher of philosophical Christianity” (Hatch), “the first self-conscious theologian and ethicist” (Backhouse), “the first great Christian teacher in Alexandria” (Needham), “the founder of Christian philosophical theology” (Bray), “the true creator of ecclesiastical theology” (DeFaye), “the first major commentator on the Bible” (Bray), “the founder of Christian literature” (ANF), “the great founder of the Alexandrian School” (Coxe), a “pioneer of Christian scholarship” (ACCS), “an intellectual giant in the early church” (Kruger), “that man of genius who introduced Christianity to itself, as reflected in the burnished mirror of his intellect” (Coxe), and “the most inquisitive and independent spirit that has perhaps ever appeared in the Church” (DeFaye).

Stylistically, it has been noted that “his writings shine with a happy, peaceful, optimistic spirit; reading them can be a remarkably uplifting experience” (Needham). “He loves God’s creation and sees it as good; he gives us a warm, joyous picture of life; he is richly human, sane, and moderate” (Ferguson). Additionally, Clement's works “are a storehouse of curious ancient lore—a museum of the fossil remains of the beauties and monstrosities of the world of pagan antiquity, during all the epochs and phases of its history” (Wilson). “His prodigious erudition was unsurpassed even by that of Origen” (Cayre). “I do not know where we shall look for a purer or a truer man than this Clemens of Alexandria; he seems to me one of the old fathers whom we should all have reverenced most as a teacher, and loved best as a friend” (Maurice).

Nonetheless, there have been a few detracting voices. Photios I of Constantinople writes polemically against Clement's theology in the Bibliotheca, although he also is appreciative of Clement's learning and the literary merits of his work. In particular, he is highly critical of the Hypotyposes, a work of biblical exegesis of which only a few fragments have survived. Photios compared Clement's treatise, which, like his other works, was highly syncretic, featuring ideas of Hellenistic, Jewish, and Gnostic origin, unfavorably against the prevailing orthodoxy of the 9th century. Amongst the particular ideas Photios deemed heretical were: However, it is not clear that these are accurate representations of Clement's actual beliefs, since his extant writings appear to be mostly in line with what would come to be considered orthodox Christian theology. It has been suggested that Photios may have misunderstood Clement to be speaking for himself when he was often quoting from Gnostics and other sects without agreeing with their teachings.
 * The belief that matter and thought are eternal, and thus did not originate from God, contradicting the doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo.
 * The belief in cosmic cycles predating the creation of the world, following Heraclitus, which is extra-Biblical in origin.
 * The belief that Christ, as Logos, was in some sense created, contrary to John 1, but following Philo.
 * Ambivalence toward docetism, the heretical doctrine that Christ's earthly body was an illusion.
 * The belief that Eve was created from Adam's sperm after he ejaculated during the night
 * The belief that Genesis 6:2 implies that angels indulged in coitus with human women.
 * The belief in reincarnation, i.e., the transmigration of souls.

As one of the earliest of the Church fathers whose works have survived, he is the subject of a significant amount of recent academic work, focusing on, among other things, his exegesis of scripture, his Logos-theology and pneumatology, his apparent belief in apokatastasis, the relationship between his thought and non-Christian philosophy, and his influence on Origen.

Veneration
Up until the 17th century Clement was venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. His name was to be found in the martyrologies, and his feast fell on the fourth of December, but when the Roman Martyrology was revised by Pope Clement VIII his name was dropped from the calendar on the advice of Cardinal Baronius. Benedict XIV maintained this decision of his predecessor on the grounds that Clement's life was little known, that he had never obtained public cultus in the Church, and that some of his doctrines were, if not erroneous, at least suspect.

Although Clement is not widely venerated in Eastern Christianity, the Prologue of Ohrid repeatedly refers to him as a saint, as do various Orthodox authorities including the Greek Metropolitan Kallinikos of Edessa.

The Coptic tradition considers Clement a saint. Saint Clement Coptic Orthodox Christian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, is specifically named after him.

Clement is commemorated in Anglicanism.

Gnosis
Clement taught that faith was the basis of salvation; he also believed that faith was the basis of gnosis—which to him meant spiritual and mystical knowledge. Clement of Alexandria appropriated the word gnosis from the Gnostics (whom he opposed) but reinterpreted the word in a more Christian manner. He distinguished between two kinds of Christians: the pistic Christian who lives according to God's law, and the Christian gnostic who lives on the level of the gospel and responds by discipline and love. Clement's views of gnosis can be considered a forerunner of the Christian monastic movement that began in Egypt after his death.

Philosophy
Clement suggested that philosophy was a preparatory discipline to the Greek world preceding its wide acceptance of Christianity and often sought to harmonize insights of Greek philosophy with biblical teaching. He defined philosophy as "the desire for true being and the studies which lead to it." Clement has been described as "the founder of what was to become the great tradition of Christian philosophical theology." He was a forerunner to some of the later views of Augustine, such as just war theory and the theory of the two cities.

Universalism
Clement is often regarded as one of the first Christian universalists; he espoused a belief in the eventual salvation of every person (though not with the level of systematic clarity of his disciple Origen). Clement believed divine punishment to be corrective and remedial rather than merely retributive or destructive. He writes, "[God] destroys no one but gives salvation to all." "He bestows salvation on all mankind." "He indeed saves all universally—some as converted by punishments, others by voluntary submission with dignity of honor—that to Him every knee shall bow, both of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; that is, angels, and men, and souls departed this life." "God's punishments are saving and disciplinary, leading to conversion; choosing rather the repentance than the death of a sinner." "I will grant that He punishes the disobedient, for punishment is for the good and advantage of him who is punished, for it is the correction of a refractory subject." "For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the Lord of the universe, both generally and particularly."

Education
For Clement, disciplining the body would help the Christian discipline the soul; he gave detailed instructions on proper Christian conduct, decorum, and relationships in the second and third books of The Instructor. According to Clement, once the passions are subject to the authority of the Word (or reason), the Christian can embark on an advanced course of philosophical study and contemplation.

Clement adopted a position that gave rise to a whole stream of later Christian thought: true philosophyundefined and authentic human knowledge have their origin in the Logos, which is the unique source of all truth. He accepts the conception of παιδεία as he conducts the wisdom taught by the Logos through education in the sacred letters: on the one hand, the Greek παιδεία prepares the mind of the Christian to distinguish and defend the truth, and, on the other, the liberal arts help the new Christian to direct all his efforts towards the truly useful of each particular discipline, geometry, music, grammar and philosophy.

Notably (considering the time period), Clement seemed to advocate for the equality of women and men in the area of education, at least within the context of Christian spirituality and ethics. He wrote, "Let us recognize, too, that both men and women practice the same sort of virtue; surely, if there is but one God for both, then there is but one Educator for both."

Economics
Clement opposed a literal interpretation of the command "sell what you have and give to the poor," and argued that the Bible does not command every person to renounce all property, and that wealth can be used either for good or evil. Yet he seems to have done so tentatively (and perhaps reluctantly), to address the concerns of upper-class converts, while simultaneously warning of the dangers of wealth.

Creation
Clement believed that the days mentioned in Genesis are allegorical. Clement assumed a double creation, one of an invisible world and the second being material creation. He believed that formless matter existed before the creation of the world, being influenced by Plato. Clement tried to interpret Genesis 6 in harmony with the Book of Enoch.

Others
The first person in church history to introduce a view of an invisible and a visible church is Clement of Alexandria. Because Clement saw the Protoevangelium of James as canonical, it could imply he believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, though some have argued that he does not seem to believe in the sinlessness of Mary.

Clement of Alexandria interprets "Fire of Wisdom" which prevades the soul as by a baptism.

Clement of Alexandria used the word "symbol" to define the Eucharist, and interpreted John 6 to be an allegory about faith, however his views on real presence are disputed.

Clement of Alexandria was apparently an amillennialist.

Editions

 * Sylburg, Friedrich (ed.) (1592). Clementis Alexandrini Opera Quae Extant.  Heidelberg: ex typographeio Hieronymi Commelini.
 * Heinsius, Daniel (ed.) (1616). Clementis Alexandrini Opera Graece et Latine Quae Extant.  Leiden: excudit Ioannes Patius academiae typographus.
 * Potter, John (ed.) (1715). Clementis Alexandrini Opera, 2 vols. Oxonii: e theatro Sheldoniano. Vol. 1. Cohortatio ad gentes.  Paedagogus. Stromatum I-IV.  Vol. 2. Stromatum V-VIII. Quis dives salvetur. Excerpta Theodoti. Prophetarum ecologiae.  Fragmenta.
 * Klotz, Reinhold (ed.) (1831–34). Titi Flaui Clementis Alexandrini Opera Omnia, 4 vols.  Leipzig: E. B. Schwickert.  Vol. 1. Ρrotrepticus.  Paedagogus.  Vol. 2. Stromatorum I-IV.  Vol. 3. Stromatourm V-VIII. Quis dives salvetur.  Vol. 4.  Fragmenta. Scholia. Annotationes. Indices.
 * Migne, J.-P. (ed.) (1857). Clementis Alexandrini Opera Quae Exstant Omnia, 2 toms. (= PG 8, 9)  Paris: J.-P. Migne.  Tom. 1. Cohortatio ad gentes. Paedagogus. Stromata I-IV.  Tom. 2. Stromata V-VIII. Quis dives salvetur. Fragmenta.
 * Dindorf, Wilhelm (ed.) (1869). Clementis Alexandrini Opera, 4 vols. Oxonni: e typographeo Clarendoniano. Vol. 1. Ρrotrepticus. Paedagogus.  Vol. 2. Stromatum I-IV.  Vol. 3. Stromatum V-VIII.  Vol. 4. Annotationes. Interpretum.
 * Barnard, P. Mourdant (ed.) (1897). Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur. Texts and Studies 5/2.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 * de:Otto Stählin (ed.) (1905–36). Clemens Alexandrinus, 4 bds. (= GCS 12, 15, 17, 39) Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. Bd. 1. Ρrotrepticus und Paedagogus.  Bd. 2. Stromata I-VI.  Bd. 3. Stromata VII-VIII. Excerpta ex Theodoto. Eclogae prophetica. Quis dives salvetur. Fragmente. Bd. 4. Register.
 * Marcovich, Miroslav and Jacobus C. M. van Winden (eds.) (2002). Clementis Alexandrini Paedagogus. Leiden: Brill.  ISBN 978-9004124707

Translations

 * Wilson, William (trans.) (1867). "The Writings of Clement of Alexandria". In Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. A. Roberts, et al., 2:163–629. (Reprint 1905) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
 * Barnard, P. Mourdant (trans.) (1901). A Homily of Clement of Alexandria, Entitled: Who is the Rich Man that is being Saved?  London: SPCK.
 * Hort, F. J. A. and Joseph B. Mayor (eds. & trans.) (1902). Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies Book VII. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1108007542
 * Patrick, John (1914). Clement of Alexandria, 183-85. Edinburgh: Wm. Blackwood. (Exhortation to Endurance, or, To the Newly Baptized; cf. Butterworth 1919, 371 ff.)
 * Butterworth, G. W. (ed. & trans.) (1919). Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, Rich Man's Salvation, etc. (= LCL 92) Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  ISBN 978-0674991033
 * Casey, Robert Pierce (ed. & trans.) (1936). The Excerpta ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria. Studies and Documents 1. London: Christophers.
 * Oulton, J. E. L. and Henry Chadwick (trans.) (1954). Alexandrian Christianity, 40–165. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. (Miscellanies, Books III, VII) ISBN 978-0664241537
 * Wood, Simon P. (trans.) (1954). Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator. Fathers of the Church 23. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 978-0813215624
 * Ferguson, John (trans.) (1991). Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Books 1–3. Fathers of the Church 85. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.  ISBN 978-0813214337

title: Clement of Alexandria