Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy. He is credited with dividing the globe into five climatic zones, but many of the discoveries credited to him likely originated earlier or were made by his colleagues or successors.

About Pythagoras in brief

Pythagoras of Samos was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy. In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries. He may have also devised the doctrine of musica universalis, which holds that the planets move according to mathematical equations and thus resonate to produce an inaudible symphony of music. His teachings underwent a major revival in the first century BC among Middle Platonists, coinciding with the rise of Neopythagoreism. The accuracy of the writings of the historian Herodotus is controversial. The first concise description of Pythagsoras comes from the historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who describes him as ‘not the most insignificant of Greek sages and sages of the sages’ He is credited with dividing the globe into five climatic zones, but many of the discoveries credited to him likely originated earlier or were made by his colleagues or successors. No authentic writings have survived, and almost nothing is known for certain about his life. The earliest source on his teachings is a satirical poem probably written after his death by Xenophanes of Colophon, who had been one of his contemporaries. In the poem, he intercedes on behalf of a dog that is being beaten, professing to recognize in its cries the voice of a departed friend.

The poet Heraclitus of Ephesus mocked Pythagora as a charing that may have lived within his lifetime, remarking that he practiced inquiry more cleverly than any other man, and may have manufactured a wisdom for himself, artful knavery, and artful learning. He is also said to have taught his followers how to attain immortality, but this is disputed by modern scholars. The teaching most securely identified with Pythagoris is metempsychosis, or the ‘transmigration of souls,’ which holds every soul is immortal and, upon death, enters into a new body. He continued to be regarded as a great philosopher throughout the Middle Ages and his philosophy had a major impact on scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton. He also influenced the modern vegetarian movement, and his teachings as portrayed in Ovid’s Metamorphoses influenced the early modern European esotericism. He died in Metapontum, where he may have been killed during this persecution, or escaped to Metapontoum, to where he eventually died. He was the first man to call himself a philosopher, and that he was first to divide the globeinto five climateatic zones. He taught that the five regular solids, the Theory of Proportions, the sphericity of the Earth, and the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus were all Pythagoreans.

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