Robert C. Solomon (September 14, 1942 – January 2, 2007) was an American professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Career

Early life

Solomon was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. His father was a lawyer, and his mother an artist. He was born with a hole in his heart and was not expected to live into adulthood. After earning a B.A. in microbiology (1963) at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to the University of Michigan to study medicine, switching to philosophy for an M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1967).

Teaching and research

He held several teaching positions at such schools as Princeton University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh. From 1972 until his death, except for two years at the University of California at Riverside in the mid-1980s, he taught at University of Texas at Austin, serving as Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business. He was a member of the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Solomon was also a member of the inaugural class of Academic Advisors at the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

Solomon (/ˈsɒləmən/; Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה, Modern Shlomo, Tiberian Šəlōmō ISO 259-3 Šlomo; Syriac: ܫܠܝܡܘܢ‎ Shlemun; Arabic: سُليمان‎ Sulaymān, also colloquially: Silimān or Slemān; Greek: Σολομών Solomōn; Latin: Salomon), also called Jedidiah (Hebrew יְדִידְיָהּ), was, according to the Bible (Book of Kings: 1 Kings 1–11; Book of Chronicles: 1 Chronicles 28–29, 2 Chronicles 1–9), Qur'an, and Hidden Words a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David. The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are circa 970 to 931 BC, normally given in alignment with the dates of David's reign. He is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone.

According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets. In the Qur'an, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David. Solomon (Arabic سليمان Sulaymān) was, according to the Qur'an, a king of ancient Israel as well as the son of David. The Qur'an recognizes Solomon as a prophet and a divinely-appointed monarch. Islamic tradition generally holds that Solomon was the third king of Israel and was a just and wise ruler for the nation.

Solomon is a New Zealand band, who in 2007 were crowned the overall winners (out of 650 bands) of the Smokefreerockquest. Along with this, they took home the award for best song for Grand Vocation.

Solomon's first success in the competition came the previous year when they came second.

Fronted by Michael Cho, and featuring keyboardist Philip Kim, the band has now been together for 5 years. All the band's members are originally from Rangitoto College, on Auckland's North Shore.

References

The Kingdom of Solomon is an Iranian religious/historical film trilogy, produced by Mojtaba Faravardeh and directed by Shahriar Bahrani who has made Saint Mary before. The Kingdom of Solomon was going to be released internationally on November 2010 after its screening in Iran, but due to some technicalities its global release has been delayed. The film tells the life story of Prophet Solomon, the King of Israelites. It is mostly based on the Islamic accounts of Solomon's prophetic life extracted from the Qur'an but it also draws upon parallels found in some Jewish texts.

Plot

Solomon is a wise prophet selected as the crown prince by his father King David (Dawud in Islamic texts) when he was 9. Following Prophet David's death, Solomon succeeds to the crown and God appoints him as a prophet. Requesting from God the establishment of a divine kingdom, Solomon takes the wind under his command and jinns and demons under his control. Inviting rulers of the neighbouring lands to the monotheistic religion, Prophet Solomon continues his divine mission in as much as Balqis, the Queen of Sheba professes monotheism. At the end, while leaning on his cane, Solomon bids farewell to the world, and the jinns and demons get out of reign and return to their own world.