Why Did The Pythagoreans Have In Common

The Pythagoreans were a cult society surrounding the belief that salvation (a purification of the soul and release from the body) was found in the inquiry of the nature of all things. They consider their founder and leader, Pythagoras, a demigod, and accredited all of their findings to him. They are most famously known for their work in mathematics, such as the Pythagorean Theorem. Yet, the Pythagoreans had numerous philosophical works tied to their worship of numbers as well.

The Pythagoreans were a direct contrast to their predecessors, the Milesians, in their concept of the composition of the universe. “The Pythagoreans, on the contrary, sought explanation in terms of structure or form, a form in essence numerical.” (Allen 6). The ultimate

“E.g. as the number 10 is thought to be perfect and to comprise the whole nature of numbers…” (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 985b 23). 10 was a demonstration of the nature of the world of numbers, because it was the sum of 1,2, 3, and 4. These numbers, called the perfect consonances, gain their significance from the fact that almost any ratio can be reduced to a relationship between these numbers. 10 and these consonances are very distinct parts of the whole, yet embodying the whole. This is where a contradiction is present. While 10 is considered the whole nature of numbers, or the continuous stream of numbers it is a discrete part of the whole, that is then making up the entirety of the whole, or universe. This would mean that numbers make up the unlimited universe and the nature of numbers is condensed in one single unit. 10 was the base of Pythagorean arithmetic. In effect, the claim “the whole nature of numbers” could mean that the essence of ten is the beginning to the unlimited universe. With the Pythagorean symbol, the Tetractys (comprised of 10 units), there was a chant: “the fount and root of eternal nature.” What the Tetractys formally represented is unknown. Still the chant lends that this figure was the beginning of eternal nature. In the eyes of the later Eleatics, this a definite contradiction for something eternal cannot have a beginning as it has always been. The Pythagoreans have a

The Pythagoreans had 10 principles that expressed two groups aspects of the universe belonged to. “…which they arrange in two columns of cognates-limited and unlimited, odd and even, one and plurality, right and left, male and female, resting and moving, straight and crooked, light and darkness, good and bad, square and oblong.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics 985b 23). Under the table things are either in one group of these opposites or the other. However, the numeral 1 is stated to be both even and odd and therefore both limited and unlimited, expressing the nature of heaven. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 985b 23). So it would seem that this number operates outside of this binary table. 1 is the essence of the unlimited aspects of the boundless whole. Yet, it is a limited parts that represent these infinite concepts. So the dualistic view of one characteristic or another falters here. However, 1 is the essence of heaven. “The Pythagoreans, too, held that void exists and that breathe and void enter from the Unlimited into heaven itself, which, as it were inhales.” (Aristotle, Physics 213b 22). So the unlimited whole is separate from the void, non-being, and heaven. So while this may maintain the dualistic system of the Unlimited or universe, the number 1 is still apart of numerical system that made up the world, for it is still a part of arithmetic. They may have considered heaven as a force that acts on