Questions tagged [pythagoras]
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – c. 495 BC) was an Ionian Greek philosopher.
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Arguments against eternal return
I have encountered the concept of eternal return e.g. in reading about Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) and Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC). This is one formulation from Nietzsche's The Will To Power:...
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Why did Pythagoras prohibit eating beans?
The legend says the Pythagoreans never ate beans because they contained the spirits of dead people. My maths teacher told me this was known because a bean and an embryo are about the same size and ...
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About Wigner's view on the relation between mathematics and physics?
Physicist Eugene Wigner argued that
the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is
something bordering on the mysterious
and that
there is no rational explanation for it
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What did Aristotle think of the "music of the spheres"?
What did Arisottle think of the Pythagorean idea of "music of the spheres"?
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What are the books of Pythagoras?
A very educated person told me that in order to understand other philosophers I need to start with Pythagoras. I searched on the web for books written by Pythagoras, but without success. I understand ...
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The "slow and gradual" reduction of numbers from qualitative elements to pure quantities
In a well-known book of classical scholarship, Jaeger's Paideia, Vol.1, there is the claim that "it has been justly observed that the Greek conception of number originally contained a qualitative ...
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What did Aristotle mean about the Pythagoreans?
Aristotle said in Metaphysics about the Pythagoreans?
the "limited" (the odd numbers) and the "unlimited" (the even numbers) are not entities of a different order, but that the "unlimited" and unity-...
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Did Aristotle actually criticise Pythagorean Philosophy?
I think Aristotle criticized the number symbolism of Pythagoreans. Is this true?
In the Metaphysics, he stated that Pythogoreans thought that finitude [= odd numbers?] and infinity [= even numbers?] ...
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What did Pythagoras mean by Power and Necessity?
The "Golden Verses" write that "Power is a near neighbour to necessity." Does anyone have an idea about what that could mean?
Wikipedia contributors. "The golden verses of Pythagoras." Wikipedia, The ...
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Pythagoras' apothegm
I am trying to find an exact source of the apothegm "Everything happens according to numbers"(Πάντα κατ' αριθμό γίγνονται) which is credited to Pythagoras. I haven't managed yet to find one so I ...
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Pythagorean metaphysics
I have developed an interest in studying Pythagoras, mainly his idea of Number as the Arche. It seems that neither him nor his school left any writings, and what survives of it comes through Aristotle'...
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Is there an ur-philosophy behind the philosophy of Pythagoras and Lao Tze Tung?
Chapter forty-two of the Dao De Jing has the following:
The Dao engenders One
One engenders Two
Two engenders Three
And Three engenders the many myriad things
This looks rather like how ...
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How historically grounded is the standard narrative of the Irrationals in Antiquity?
Its commonly said that the Pythagoreans were unbalanced by the discovery of the irrationals; since their philosophy was predicated on ratios; ratios of two finite numbers.
Still, it is natural to ...
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What's the meaning of this quote of Pythagoras on the good and bad principle?
Simone de Beauvoir attributed the following quote on the good and bad principles to Pythagoras in The Second Sex, page 114 :
There is a good principle that created order, light, and man and a bad ...
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What was the "rigorous" definition of "number" for the Pythagoreans?
I am not sure if this is the right stackexchange for this question. However, I'm wondering about the following thing:
We know n+ow that there are rational and irrational numbers. Pythagoras however, ...
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Sources of Pythagoras' quotes
I have learned that there are many quotes attributed to Pythagoras. I am concerned with what the sources are and how reliable they are. I'll appreciate help.
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