Thinker · TH-0344
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos founded a religious and philosophical community at Croton in southern Italy in the later sixth century BCE. He wrote nothing, and…
Πυθαγόρας
Also known as Pythagoras of Samos
c. 570 – 495 BCE · Samos; Croton (southern Italy); Metapontum
Traditions: Greek & Roman
Schools: Pre-Socratics
Pythagoras of Samos founded a religious and philosophical community at Croton in southern Italy in the later sixth century BCE. He wrote nothing, and almost everything said about him comes from later sources heavy with legend, so it is disputed how much of "Pythagorean" mathematics and cosmology goes back to him personally. He is reliably associated with the transmigration of souls and a disciplined way of life, and his followers made number central to their account of the world.
Key ideas
- The soul is immortal and passes into other living bodies after death.
- A disciplined communal life, with rules of diet and silence, purifies the soul.
- Musical harmony rests on simple numerical ratios, a discovery the tradition credits to him.
- Number and order underlie the cosmos, a view developed mainly by his followers.
Major works
- Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I (report of Pythagorean views)
- Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VIII (biographical record)
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life (late biographical record)