Pythagoras of Samos

Authentic works Pifagora not extant, and (according to reliable ancient tradition) never existed. Surviving Late biography (Diogenes Laertius, Porphyry, Iamblichus and Photius) largely based on neopifagoreyskih biographies of Pythagoras, owned by Apollonius of Tyana, Nikomahu of Gerasim and others, and are building so-called. "late" or "secondary" literature of Pythagoras, which only partially can be identified with a "primary" (ie. based directly on the oral tradition of the last of the Pythagoreans) IV in the literature. BC.
The remains of this "primary" literature, along with some earlier evidence (Heraclitus, Empedocles, Herodotus, Plato) form the core of the most reliable evidence about the life and teachings of Pythagoras. However, even the earliest sources are full of contradictions, and the usual criteria of historical authenticity often inapplicable, tk. early in the prevailing legend about Pythagoras-wonderworker reproduces historic atmosphere that surrounded the "Hyperborean Apollo (the so-krotontsy styled Pythagoras) for life, whereas rationalist versions are later constructions

. Curriculum canvas: Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, . in his youth had gone to study in Miletus, . where he listened to Anaximander (biographical tradition also insists on the proximity to Pherecydes of Syros, . mystical and allegorical cosmology which is more like Pythagoras); c.,
. 532 g. under pressure from the tyranny of Polycrates settled in Croton (southern Italy), where he founded a political society that has taken power in Crotone and disseminated political influence throughout the South of Italy. As a result of rising antipifagoreyskogo Pythagoras escaped to Metaponto, where he died, probably about. 497/496 BC.

Reconstruction of the original teachings of Pythagoras and early Pythagoreanism evolution - one of the most difficult problems in the history of ancient philosophy

. Reliably attested: the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, . on the transmigration of souls in conjunction with the "memory of ancestors" (according to legend, . Pythagoras could remember his four previous incarnations) and the kinship of all living beings, the requirement of "purification" (catharsis) as the highest ethical goal, . achieved - for the body - through diet and exercises, . for the soul - through music and music cognition numerical structure of the Cosmos, . symbolically expressed in tetraktide "(" quaternions "), . ie,
. amount of the first four numbers 1 +2 +3 +4 = 10, containing the basic musical intervals: the octave (2:1), quinte (3:2) and a quart (4:3). Pythagoras ascribed to the idea of the sphericity of the Earth (among other considerations, he probably was guided by the idea of symmetry between the shape of the Earth and the celestial sphere). It is believed that Pythagoras identified the Morning and Evening Star (Hesperus and Phosphorus) from Venus, he introduced a geometric division of the celestial sphere into zones (arctic, tropical, etc.), and the Earth, this division will probably suffered Parmenides. It seems that Pythagoras was the first who gave the world wide name "space". He is also the author of the word "philosophy".

In general we can say with confidence that the study of space and comprehension, due to this, the structure of the universe, was one of the most important activities of the Pythagorean. Aristotle's testimony is worth the following:

. "For what it is all the existing things of nature and God have created us? Pythagoras, when he was asked about this, replied: 'To observe the firmament'."
. Reconstruction cosmogonic teachings of Pythagoras shows that it was fundamentally dualistic
. The world is formed from the interaction of two principles - the limit and infinite. Last conceived as an infinite empty space that surrounds our world, and at the same time as the void. The nearest part of the infinite air is inhaled into the world and confined. Further, this part of the air distinguishes natural things, marking the beginning of their existence.
In honor of Pythagoras called minor planet (asteroid) number 6143 and the lunar crater Pythagoras.