Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 61 views

    HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Pythagoreanism

    Uploaded by

    kent babs
    The Pythagoreans believed that number was the underlying principle of all reality. They observed that natural phenomena followed mathematical patterns and could be measured numerically. From this, they concluded that number and its elements of odd and even constituted the essence of all things. The even was identified as unlimited and the odd as limited. Therefore, everything was composed of a limited and unlimited element. Additionally, the Pythagoreans believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, viewing the soul as existing before the body and being imprisoned within it as punishment for some primitive fault.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Pythagoreanism

    Uploaded by

    kent babs
    61 views2 pages
    The Pythagoreans believed that number was the underlying principle of all reality. They observed that natural phenomena followed mathematical patterns and could be measured numerically. From this, they concluded that number and its elements of odd and even constituted the essence of all things. The even was identified as unlimited and the odd as limited. Therefore, everything was composed of a limited and unlimited element. Additionally, the Pythagoreans believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, viewing the soul as existing before the body and being imprisoned within it as punishment for some primitive fault.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The Pythagoreans believed that number was the underlying principle of all reality. They observed that natural phenomena followed mathematical patterns and could be measured numerically. From this, they concluded that number and its elements of odd and even constituted the essence of all things. The even was identified as unlimited and the odd as limited. Therefore, everything was composed of a limited and unlimited element. Additionally, the Pythagoreans believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, viewing the soul as existing before the body and being imprisoned within it as punishment for some primitive fault.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    61 views2 pages

    HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Pythagoreanism

    Uploaded by

    kent babs
    The Pythagoreans believed that number was the underlying principle of all reality. They observed that natural phenomena followed mathematical patterns and could be measured numerically. From this, they concluded that number and its elements of odd and even constituted the essence of all things. The even was identified as unlimited and the odd as limited. Therefore, everything was composed of a limited and unlimited element. Additionally, the Pythagoreans believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, viewing the soul as existing before the body and being imprisoned within it as punishment for some primitive fault.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY: A SUMMARY (based on the book of Ignatius Yarza: History of

    Ancient Philosophy)

    ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
    AB PHILOSOPHY
    SACRED HEART SEMINARY

    II. The Pythagoreans

    Pythagoras and his school

     Pythagoreanism is more of a religious sect than a Philosophical school.


     Derived its name from their founder named Pythagoras.
     Pythagoras himself wrote nothing , and his disciples shrouded his teachings in an atmosphere of
    secrecy, revealing them only to the initiated members of the sect.

    Number, the principle of all things


     Pythagorean philosophy shows interest in cosmology. They studied nature like the Ionians.
     They sought to discover the unifying principle of all reality.
     They identified this with number, and hence, for the first time, departed from the tradition of
    designating a material substance (air, water, fire, etc) as the first principle.
     For them, numbers are not beings of reason, concepts which results from the use of abstraction.
     So what are then numbers?
     The answer to this question will be clearer if we understand how the Pythagoreans arrived at
    their solution. It was their study of Mathematics that led them to reduce all of reality to a series
    of numerical relations.

    Like previous philosophers, they had observed the different characteristics of phenomena. From
    their observations, they saw that these characteristics followed clear mathematical patterns. Natural
    Phenomena followed an order which could also be measured numerically- the duration of the year,
    the seasons, the length of day, etc. Hence, they concluded that number and its elements constituted
    the principle of all things: Number constituted the essence and substance of all that was real.

    Elements of Number: Odd- Even; Limited- Unlimited


     Everything then is reducible to number. But in its turn, number itself is further divisible into a
    number of categories.
     This means that every number can always be divided into even and odd elements. It follows
    from this that even and odd elements constitute the universal elements of number, and hence,
    all things as well.
     But since the even is identified with the unlimited and the odd with the limited, everything must
    be composed of this pair of contrasts.
     The pythagoreans arrived at this reduction of the even and odd to the unlimited and the limited
    through their study if number and through the geometrical interpretation they gave to it.
     Since they did not have any way of representing the different numbers, they used points instead,
    and with these points they made different geometrical figures.
     The figure that represented an even number they found to be infinitely divisible, whereas that
    which represented an odd number was not.
     Hence, they identified the even number with the unlimited or infinite, and the odd number with
    the limited or finite. Therefore, every reality was composed of and unlimited element and a
    limited element.
     The Pythagoreans associated the unlimited to the imperfection and the lack of reason and
    intelligibility in things.
     They therefore, did not identify the unlimited with God, for if the infinite is conceived in material
    things, it cannot be identified with a being which, like God, is supposed to be supremely perfect.

    Man and the Soul


     Pythagoreanism taught the immortality and transmigaration of the soul.
     Man is a composite of body and soul. The soul existed before the body, and it was only due to
    some primitive fault that souls are jailed inside the body as a punishment.

    You might also like