Concept
Pythagoreanism
Overview
system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Pythagoras was the first philosopher that called the world [Greek omitted], from the order and beauty of it; for so that word signifies. Thales and his followers say the world is one. Democritus, Epicurus, and their scholar Metrodorus affirm that there are infinite worlds in an infinite space, for that infinite vacuum in its whole extent contains them. Empedocles, that the circle which the sun makes in its motion…
Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3
States what Pythagoreanism is; the author is tied to Pythagoreanism in the knowledge graph.
Sometimes, too, he is called the absolute _Good_,—while the origin of evil is attributed not to him, but to matter which prevented him from conducting everything to the best end. With respect to man, the doctrine of Pythagoras was that known by the name of the Metempsychosis,—that the soul after death rested a certain time till it was purified, and had acquired a forgetfulness of what had previously happened to it…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by
States what Pythagoreanism is.
also found amongst the Greeks; there are some who, earlier or later, have made use of this particular doctrine, and have spoken of it as if it were their own; I know their names very well, but I will not mention them.” He undoubtedly meant Pythagoras and his followers. In the sequel, much that is given utterance to is fictitious: “Pythagoras himself is said to have stated that his former personality was known to him.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
Close in meaning to Pythagoreanism; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Pythagoreanism
- Heraclitus
- Zeno of Elea
- Xenocrates
- Heraclides Ponticus
- Simone Weil
- Philo
- Alcmaeon of Croton
- Xenophanes
- Pythagoras
- Parmenides
- Philolaus
- Archytas
- Thales of Miletus
- Hypatia
- Plotinus
- Speusippus
- Apollonius of Tyana
- Iamblichus
- Seneca the Younger
- W. K. C. Guthrie
- Democritus
- Pherecydes of Syros
- Posidonius
- Themistius
Related ideas
- De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- Mind–body problem
- Neopythagoreanism
- Avicenna
- Francis Bacon
- Anaximander
- Afterlife
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Golden ratio
- Doxography
- Grammar
- Harmonice Mundi
- Phaedo
- Western philosophy
- Heraclitus
- Heaven
- Orphism
- Michael Psellos
- Parity (mathematics)
- History of science
- Ionic Greek
- Italy
- Integer
- Isaac Newton
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Outline of philosophy.
Narrower topics:
- Babylonian mathematics
- Cube
- De Oratore
- Diophantus
- Fibonacci
- French Academy of Sciences
- Octave
- Olympia, Greece
- Parity (mathematics)
- Pentagram
- Platonic solid
- Speed of sound
- Taranto
- Tetrahedron
- Dodecahedron
- Hicetas
- Accademia del Cimento
- Interval (music)
- Pentagon
- Theodorus of Cyrene
- Hippasus
- Trichotomy (philosophy)
- Achaeans (tribe)
- Pythia