Paper Example on Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Pythagoras

Introduction

The commonly known philosophers originated from the western part of the world in Greece. Greece produced the three well known great thinkers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

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The Greek philosophers did not create their views and ideas from nowhere. They all developed more ideas from what other pre-Socratic philosophers developed. Socrates grew inland where other philosophers had been born and developed. The philosophers developed in a period called 'pre-Socratic philosophy.' A hundred and above philosophers contributed to the well-known existing facts and ideas.

The earliest Greek philosophers held the fact that there exist only four elements in the whole universe. According to philosophers, the details are; Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

The well-known pre-Socratic philosophers who gave these elements are likes of; Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, and Many others.

Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes formed a philosophical approach in the geographical region of Ionia. The neighboring cities produced other two philosophers namely Pythagoras and Heraclitus. The five philosophers joined hands and created a unique Ionian Philosophical schools.

Pythagoras

Pythagoras is known as a great mathematician who developed a mathematical relation. Pythagoras (c. 570-c,497 BCE) believed that any reality is of mathematical relationships or formula. He was born in the Samos island in Ionian region along Turkish peninsula. At his young age, Pythagoras spent time dealing with religious practices along the Mediterranean area. With time Pythagoras made many followers for religious functions and also for scientific purposes. Sometimes he wrote nothing but the people who listened recorded his ideas, though not many survive to date (Barnes, 78).

Pythagoras was a man of his uniqueness and was said to be of his dignity. His followers had an opinion that he was Apollo who rises from (mythical realm of) hyperborean. Some people say as he was stripped naked, his thigh was golden and many people confirmed as he was crossing the river Nessus. The river Nessus named him as (Diogenes, lives. 'Pythagoras').

People believed that his views were as a result of gods. There existed two groups of his disciples. One was privileged to be with him always and were called 'Mathematicians' who used and dedicated their time to study with him in person. The other group of people was named 'the listener.' The listeners did not study with him in person but could collect the hearsays and record them from other people.

Pythagoras held some principles in his work. These principles appeared as strange rules. The rules are:

• A person should not swirl the fire with knives.
• Always the people involved in his work should rub the mark or point on the port with ashes.
• People should not wear or put on a ring.
• People should not swallow anything while in the house.
• People should always spit on their pairings of the nails and trimmings of their hair.
• People should not eat beans.
• People should not feed on flesh or living things.
• People should always avoid urinating while facing the sun.

Pythagoras did his work, and he received many guests throughout not less than six hundred. People who got the privilege to visit him recorded his views, and they saw it as an honor. Pythagoras died while he had gone for dinner to a close friend and the house was set on fire by his enemies. The enemies thought he was to be influential in life and would take control of the entire city, and become a tyrant.

The name Pythagoras is similar to the Pythagorean theorem. When he discovered it, he gave one hundred cattle to gods as a sacrifice. He later gave the linear approach to geometry that was then formulated by Euclid. Pythagoras said that mathematics was the heart of philosophy and he believed that mathematical relations control and governed everything in the universe. He said that numbers are very sacred.

Pythagoras predicted that everything in nature is related to mathematics. Mathematics predicts rhythmic patterns in measurements. He gave two significant mathematical ratios: the harmony in music and tetractys.

The four items or points above represents the four elements in the universe: earth, air fire and water. He said various combinations of the points produces a very vital ratio and numbers. Pythagoras described cosmos as something arranged in some proportions linked to the Tetractys. He noted that the tetractys are a number that when composed of the first digits results to ten as a perfect number. Ten is the first tetractys and is considered a source of ever living nature. Pythagoras said that the cosmos is a harmony composed of three stanzas: fourth, fifth and octave. Musicians especially the players of instruments employ the three mathematical portions ( Raven, 216).

Pythagoras said that the soul lives forever, then it changes to other forms of animals. Things that take place occur again at specified intervals and no new idea that exists. The above phenomena led to two different aspects of cosmos. The fist is 'Reincarnation': upon the death of the person, the soul migrates to a newborn baby and when the baby dies the soul migrates to another infant. The second is that activities of a cosmos recur after a specific period. These views exist in Hindu and Pythagoras came across them in his work.

Pythagoras also noted some sarcasm that takes place in the Olympic events. He said that three lives are seen in the circumstances. The lowest is the businessman who sells and make money to the visitors. The next level is with the athlete who makes the run and wins the prizes, and the third who is the highest is the spectators who watch the events. This is a metaphor according to the philosopher who stroll the universe and reflects on it.

Works Cited

Barnes, Jonathan. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers. Routledge,1982

Kirk G.S, Raven J.E. The pre-Socratic Philosophers: A critical History with a Selection of Texts Cambridge University Press, 1957