Knowledge is Power (6) - Who was Phytagoras?
The ancient period of philosophy is called Pre-Socratic, around 624 BCE. Some Pre-Socratic philosphers are: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Hippocrates etc.
In this article I would like to share some interesting facts about Pythagoras, as he is my favorite Pre-Socratis Philosopher, and I will tell you why... shortly... keep reading :)
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Pythagoras is often described as a very important mathematician, yet we have nothing written by him, so we don't know much about his work. What we DO know is that he was both a mathematician and a mystic.
As a mathematician, he is well known for the Pytagorean Theorem.
Source Wikimedia Commons
"The sum of the squares of the sides of a right angle triangle are equal to the square of the hypotenuse".
Pythagoras was a mysterious figure. He created a secret society, half scientific and half philosophical, called ‘mathematikoi’. This society contributed enormously to the understanding of mathematics.
Pythagoras believed that the world is created from numbers and numbers are the essence of reality. Numbers rule the Universe and numbers are present in all things.
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Pythagoras is also known as the father of astronomy. He was the first to speak about the spherical shape of Earth and the planetary motion. He believed that Earth evolves around a central fire!!!
Besides being a mathematician and an astronomer, Pythagoras was a great philosopher.
He believed that the body is the tomb of the soul. He believed that the soul has 3 parts - the love of gain, honor and wisdom. So, in his concept, there were three types of men: those who love gain, those who love honor and those who love wisdom.
His most common questions were:
What is reality? How does one come to know the truth? How shall I live my life?
Pythagoras and his followers believed that the soul is immortal. All living things are related and the soul migrates from a being to another, from people to animals or plants and back. I find this very interesting.
Pythagoras were vegetarians, with no personal possessions. They related morality to the harmony of the soul. They praised friendship, altruism and integrity. At the end of each day they asked themselves what good they have done. Quite remarkable, isn't it?
But what I like most about Pythagoras is the fact that he is the first person on record who believed in equality between men and women. He accepted women in his school! He provided humane treatments to his slaves. That is admirable!
So now you know why Pythagoras is my favorite ancient philosopher. I hope I brought some interesting information in this article. There is so much to learn out there!
Well written article.
What I find interesting also is that you've occasionally pointed out your personal relation to your research, making it your own.
Have a lovely weekend, @starjewel.
Of course my dear. What’s the point of writing something without imputing my personal view? 😊
He also has a system of musical tuning named after him (it isn't clear if it was developed by him), with the intervals being related in simple ratios to each other. It is often called just (or perfect) temperament, where things sound perfectly in-tune. However, it suffers problems in not being able to close the octave (a cycle of fifths should return back to the beginning, but it doesn't in this tuning system). Also, problematic was the fact that one key will be perfectly in tune, and every other key will have different shades of sounding horrific!
I learned in this philosophy class that Pythagoras believed in the correlation between music and well being, so I a am sure the system of musical tuning has something to do with him. He prescribed music to ill people for healing, he was amazing!
I never understood any of this in school, maybe because I wasn't there that much even though I turned up most every day
Hey @wales, follow my series if you have time, you will understand a lot of things, I make it very clear and I use plain English. I am tutoring an intro philosophy class this semester, 2 courses, and I am planning to post some interesting stuff here on steemit...
This is the second reference I've heard today to Pythagoras as a philosopher. I only ever knew of him from the theorem, but it seems like he was a pretty cool fellow! Thanks for posting this!
He surely was 😊
It is no wonder that Pythagoras thought that the world was made of numbers. The more I learn of math, the more amazing it is that things don't really exist as concrete objects (numbers) seem to be able to explain so much of the world around us.
Proud member of #steemitbloggers @steemitbloggers
I agree with you. The older I get, the more I learn. I see things I didn’t see before and I think numbers are at the base of everything.
You just made me recall some of my old school days. Perpendicular, Base and Hypotenus..the three side of right angle triangle Pythagorus was a genius with so many gifts about mathematics and philosphy
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It is very good to use our brains continuously my friend 😊
Mathematics is one of subject which keeep it working ...with many reasining and quantitive aptitude...this is fun
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Interesting! Good read.
Ohhh @joyrobinson... you like him too!
So really, only fate has brought me here. You were next on my @steemitbloggers list. So cool that I'm here though really enjoyed your post. I would say I am a man form between honor and gain but more so leaning towards honor. I have a bad habit of trying to make everything sacred and have meaning. But I think that's important. Anyways, again, great post!
Ohhh so you agree with Pythagoras’s philosophy, how cool. I surely met some very interesting people here on steemit and you are one of them @balticbadger 😎
I find it so intriguing that he may have been the first person to hypothesise that the earth could be containing a 'central fire'! What brings one to determine this?! Truly extraordinary. I'm also impressed by how he treated women and slaves. Not many people back then really needed to be careful with either.
Yes, I was amazed when I learned that. That is why Pythagoras is my favorite pre-Socrates philosopher. He was really ahead of his time. Stay tuned for more interesting facts on philosophy, I am tutoring an intro class and I will post some more, as I get to it.
I remember reading about Pythagoras in school, but I don't remember how awesomely cool he was! Thanks so much for putting this together, @starjewel!
Yes, we all know Phytagoras from math, but he was much more than a mathematician. 😊