The Philosophy Book

26

NUMBER IS

THE RULER

OF FORMS

AND IDEAS

PYTHAGORAS (C.570–495 BCE)

W

estern philosophy was

in its infancy when

Pythagoras was born.

In Miletus, Greece, a group of

philosophers known collectively as

the Milesian School had started to

seek rational explanations for natural

phenomena only a generation or so

earlier, marking the beginning of

the Western philosophical tradition.

Pythagoras spent his childhood not

far from Miletus, so it is very likely

that he knew of them, and may

even have studied in their academy.

Like Thales, the founder of the

Milesian School, Pythagoras is

said to have learnt the rudiments

of geometry during a trip to Egypt.

With this background, it is not

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Metaphysics

APPROACH

Pythagoreanism

BEFORE

6th century BCE Thales

proposes a non-religious

explanation of the cosmos.

AFTER

c.535–c.475 BCE Heraclitus

dismisses Pythagoreanism

and says that the cosmos is

governed by change.

c.428 BCE Plato introduces

his concept of perfect Forms,

which are revealed to the

intellect and not the senses.

c.300 BCE Euclid, a Greek

mathematician, establishes

the principles of geometry.

1619 German mathematician

Johannes Kepler describes the

relationship between geometry

and physical phenomena.