Incomplete Pythagoras Essay
Pythagoras: A Great Man (or A Great Myth) Pythagoras, my adopted philosopher, was a man of great stature, a man who had a cult of followers, a man who is believed to be a product of the school of Anaximander , a man whose beliefs lead to his exile from his communities home in Kroton , and a man who for all intents and purposes may have never existed. Pythagoras and those who followed him, often referred to in the world of philosophy as Pythagoreans, were prone to the belief that everything: the natural world, human beings, and their interactions among one another were the product of numbers. Now when I use the term numbers
One does, however, have to understand that since he never truly wrote anything himself it is hard to know what doctrines of the Pythagoreans' are the products of Pythagoras himself or those of the Pythagorean community. Those who believe that he is man and not a myth are oftentimes skeptic about those who write about Pythagoras truly as myth. This system of beliefs worked rather well when the Pythagoreans dealt with the notions of Astronomy, Mathematics and other "sciences," but when it was applied in the real world it was, more often then not, unsuccessful. Pythagoras was originally from Samos and traveled to Kroton and started a community that was both a religious cult and a scientific school. This school often was the object of jealousy and thus many of the accounts that we receive of Pythagoras are accounts that he was merely a myth, not an actual person. I use it the same terms that the Greeks solely used it, in the term of geometric figures or dimensions. This is a fact that is highly debated in the intellectual world even to this day. With those who are certain he is myth doubt the accounts of his followers that he was a true man. This fact was found early in the Pythagorean community, but was suppressed for generations due to the thought that it would have a negative impact on the community as a whole and the influence the Pythagorean doctrine would have on those outside of the community. It is my belief that the fact that he is written about as both myth and man is no reason to believe he never truly existed. It was the Pythagorean belief that everything had a number and if one could understand all the formulas of the numbers one would be able to predict or know all things.
Common topics in this essay:
Myth Pythagoras,
Astronomy Mathematics,
Pythagoras Pythagorean,
pythagorean community,
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