Pythagoras
Pythagoras, one of the most famous and controversial ancient Greek philosophers, lived from ca. 570 to ca. 490 BCE. He spent his early years on the island of Samos, off the coast of modern Turkey. At the age of forty, however, he emigrated to the city of Croton in southern Italy and most of his philosophical activity occurred there. Pythagoras wrote nothing, nor were there any detailed accounts of his thought written by contemporaries. By the first centuries BCE, moreover, it became fashionable to present Pythagoras in a largely unhistorical fashion as a semi-divine figure, who originated all that was true in the Greek philosophical tradition, including many of Plato's and Aristotle's mature ideas. A number of treatises were forged in the name of Pythagoras and other Pythagoreans in order to support this view.
The Pythagorean question, then, is how to get behind this false glorification of Pythagoras in order to determine what the historical Pythagoras actually thought and did. In order to obtain an accurate appreciation of Pythagoras' achievement, it is important to rely on the earliest evidence before the distortions of the later tradition arose. The popular modern image of Pythagoras is that of a master mathematician and scientist. The early evidence shows, however, that, while Pythagoras was famous in his own day and even 150 years later in the time of Plato and Aristotle, it was not mathematics or science upon which his fame rested. Pythagoras was famous (1) as an expert on the fate of the soul after death, who thought that the soul was immortal and went through a series of reincarnations; (2) as an expert on religious ritual; (3) as a wonder-worker who had a thigh of gold and who could be two places at the same time; (4) as the founder of a strict way of life that emphasized dietary restrictions, religious ritual and rigorous self discipline.
It remains controversial whether he also engaged in the rational cosmology that is typical of the Presocratic philosopher/scientists and whether he was in any sense a mathematician. The early evidence suggests, however, that Pythagoras presented a cosmos that was structured according to moral principles and significant numerical relationships and may have been akin to conceptions of the cosmos found in Platonic myths, such as those at the end of the Phaedo and Republic. In such a cosmos, the planets were seen as instruments of divine vengeance (“the hounds of Persephone”), the sun and moon are the isles of the blessed where we may go, if we live a good life, while thunder functioned to frighten the souls being punished in Tartarus. The heavenly bodies also appear to have moved in accordance with the mathematical ratios that govern the concordant musical intervals in order to produce a music of the heavens, which in the later tradition developed into “the harmony of the spheres.” It is doubtful that Pythagoras himself thought in terms of spheres, and the mathematics of the movements of the heavens was not worked out in detail. There is evidence that he valued relationships between numbers such as those embodied in the so-called Pythagorean theorem, though it is not likely that he proved the theorem.
Pythagoras' cosmos was developed in a more scientific and mathematical direction by his successors in the Pythagorean tradition, Philolaus and Archytas. Pythagoras succeeded in promulgating a new more optimistic view of the fate of the soul after death and in founding a way of life that was attractive for its rigor and discipline and that drew to him numerous devoted followers.
“Двете най-леки за изговаряне думи "да" и "не" изискват най-много размишление.”
“You should make great things, not promising great things.”
“No man is free who cannot control himself.”
“Friends share all things.”
“It is difficult to walk at one and the same time many paths of life.”
“Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.”
“Practice justice in word and deed, and do not get in the habit of acting thoughtlessly about anything.”
“Above all things, respect yourself.”
“Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light.”
“Declining from the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths.”
“Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.”
“A blow from your friend is better than a kiss from your enemy.”
“The oldest, shortest words— "yes" and "no"— are those which require the most thought.”
“Number rules the universe.”
“Thought is an Idea in transit, which when once released, never can be lured back, nor the spoken word recalled. Nor ever can the overt act be erased.”
“Anger begins in folly, and ends in repentance.”
“Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.”
“In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.”
“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap the joy of love.”
“A man is never as big as when he is on his knees to help a child.”
“As soon as laws are necessary for men, they are no longer fit for freedom.”
“Salt is born of the purest parents: the sun and the sea.”
“All is Number”
“Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in few!”
“Power is the near neighbour of necessity.”
“Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be; custom will soon render it easy and agreeable.”
“Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.”
“Reason is immortal, all else mortal.”
“We ought so to behave to one another as to avoid making enemies of our friends, and at the same time to make friends of our enemies.”
“most men and women, by birth or nature, lack the means to advance in wealth or power, but all have the ability to advance in knowledge.”
“Let no one persuade you by word or deed to do or say whatever is not best for you.”
“Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence.”
“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.”
“It is only necessary to make war with five things; with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city and the discords of families.”
“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
“There is geometry in the humming of the string.”
“If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.”