Worldviews Vs Pythagorean Research Paper

I will use Anaximenes and the Pythagoreans’ beliefs to argue that philosophers’ worldviews are based on their fundamental beliefs and thus likely to be different, depending on their beliefs. While Anaximander and the Pythagoreans’ worldviews exhibit structural similarities, their beliefs were fundamentally different and this resonated through their theories and worldviews. The Pythagoreans and Anaximenes suggested similar theories to explain the structure of their world. In fact, both the Pythagoreans and Anaximenes believed in a “building block,” or key concept from which all of their theories could be derived. While they disagreed about what composed this building block, they both used the concept of a fundamental element or idea

One key difference between the Pythagoreans and Anaximenes’ core beliefs is that the Pythagoreans believed that gods and supernatural forces impacted daily life. Anaximenes, on the other hand, attempted to contradict the existence of supernatural forces by providing wholly naturalistic explanations. For example, Anaximenes believed that lightning and thunder occur when wind splits two clouds, rather than a god hurtling thunderbolts. Secondly, the Pythagoreans believed that everything was composed of numbers - which they viewed as concrete objects. The Pythagoreans often combined their belief in supernatural powers with their focus on numbers

Even if their peripheral views changed, their fundamental beliefs would not change since peripheral beliefs are derived from fundamental beliefs (and not the other way around). Take for example the Pythagoreans’ peripheral belief that numbers are associated with certain principles. For example, justice was associated with the number 4, marriage with the number 5, and opportunity with the number 7. This belief is derived from the Pythagoreans’ fundamental view that the basis of all things is numbers. If the Pythagoreans changed this particular peripheral belief, their fundamental belief in numbers would not change and their worldview would remain the same. Conversely, changing a fundamental belief, such as the role of the supernatural, would change how the Pythagoreans explain and view the world. Similarly, if Anaximenes’ changed his peripheral belief regarding rainbows and he no longer believed that they were formed by rays of the sun falling on clouds, his fundamental belief regarding air would remain