Pythagoras
The teaching attributed to him holds that numbers and their ratios order the whole world – and that the soul is reborn in new bodies.
Placement
Known only through later, often legendary reports: founded a religious-philosophical community at Croton; to him and his followers are traced the ideas that the world is ordered by numerical ratios and that souls transmigrate.
Key ideas
- All is number
- Transmigration of souls
- Harmony of the spheres
Influence
Influenced by 2
Thales of Miletus
influenced by disputed ✓
Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras says the aged Thales received the young Pythagoras and urged him to study in Egypt; the report is legendary and traces no doctrine. Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life; SEP “Pythagoras”
Thales of Miletus › c. 624–546 BCE
Anaximander
influenced by disputed ✓
Late ancient lives of Pythagoras (Porphyry, Iamblichus) name Anaximander among his teachers; the report is uncertain, and no particular doctrine can be traced from one to the other. Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras; Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life; SEP “Pythagoras”
Anaximander › c. 610–546 BCE
Influenced 6
Parmenides
influenced disputed
Diogenes Laertius reports that the Pythagorean Ameinias, rather than Xenophanes, turned Parmenides to a life of quiet; any Pythagorean influence on his doctrine is disputed. Diogenes Laertius IX.21 (Sotion); SEP “Parmenides”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Parmenides › c. 515–450 BCE
Empedocles
influenced ✓
Empedocles took up Pythagorean transmigration and the ban on killing animals (DK 31 B117, B137); the sage praised in B129 is often taken to be Pythagoras. Empedocles, DK 31 B117, B129, B137; Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras (quoting B129); SEP “Empedocles”
Empedocles › c. 494–434 BCE
Plato
influenced ✓
According to Aristotle, Plato followed the Pythagoreans in most things, recasting their imitation of numbers as participation in Forms; the Timaeus builds the cosmos from mathematical proportions. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.6, 987a29–b14; Plato, Timaeus 31b–36d; SEP “Pythagoreanism”
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Philo of Alexandria
influenced
Philo used Pythagorean number lore, praising the hebdomad at length in his account of creation, and Clement of Alexandria called him ‘the Pythagorean’. Philo, De opificio mundi 89–128; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata I–II; D. T. Runia, ‘Why does Clement of Alexandria call Philo “the Pythagorean”?’, Vigiliae Christianae 49 (1995)
Evidence: AI draft
Philo of Alexandria › c. 20 BCE – 50 CE
Nicolaus Copernicus
influenced
In the dedication of De revolutionibus (1543) Copernicus cited Pythagorean precedents for a moving earth and the Pythagoreans’ practice of passing on doctrine only to friends. N. Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543), dedication to Paul III; SEP “Nicolaus Copernicus”; SEP “Pythagoreanism”
Evidence: AI draft
Nicolaus Copernicus › 1473–1543
José Vasconcelos
influenced
Vasconcelos took Pythagoras’ doctrine of number and harmony as the model for a theory of rhythm uniting the cosmos, art and soul (Pitágoras: una teoría del ritmo, 1916). J. Vasconcelos, Pitágoras: Una teoría del ritmo (1916); El monismo estético (1918)
Evidence: AI draft
José Vasconcelos › 1882–1959
Criticism
Criticized by 2
Xenophanes
criticised by
Xenophanes mocked Pythagoras’ doctrine of transmigration: he stops a man beating a puppy because he recognises a friend’s soul in its yelping (DK 21 B7). Xenophanes, DK 21 B7 (Diogenes Laertius 8.36); SEP “Xenophanes”
Evidence: AI draft
Xenophanes › c. 570–478 BCE
Heraclitus
criticised by
Heraclitus held that Pythagoras’ ‘much learning’ does not teach understanding, and called his wisdom ‘artful knavery’ (DK 22 B40, B129). Heraclitus, DK 22 B40, B129; SEP “Heraclitus”
Evidence: AI draft
Heraclitus › c. 535–475 BCE
Position
For Pythagoras and his followers, the order of the cosmos could be expressed in number. The discovery that the musical consonances – octave, fifth and fourth – correspond to simple ratios of string lengths suggested that harmony and proportion underlie all things; later this was pictured as the “harmony of the spheres”. At the same time Pythagoras taught the immortality of the soul and its transmigration through different bodies, so that philosophy became a way of purifying the soul. This union of mathematics, cosmology and a disciplined way of life deeply influenced Plato and, through him, the whole tradition that sees mathematical structure as the key to reality.
Life & context
Born on the island of Samos, Pythagoras emigrated around 530 BCE to Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a community bound by shared rules of life, diet and silence. The brotherhood gained political influence and was later violently opposed. He wrote nothing, and much that was attributed to him stems from later Pythagoreans and from legend.
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