Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Pythagoras

Did Pythagoras exist?

painquale — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:13:42 -0800

Did Pythagoras exist? In Simon Critchley's The Book of Dead Philosophers, he writes, "Sadly, it is now almost universally assumed by classical scholars that Pythagoras never existed. It seems that there was a group of people in southern Italy called Pythagoreans who invented a "Founder" for their beliefs who, accordingly, lived and died in a manner consistent with those beliefs." I have never heard this. Is this true? (There are two questions here: is it true that Pythagoras probably didn't exist? And: is it true that this is almost universally assumed by classical scholars?)

Annoyingly, Critchley doesn't provide a citation. He writes in the introduction, "I have decided not to clutter the text with footnotes. The reader will have to trust me." If he's wrong about this, which I fear he is, he's lost my trust entirely. And that would be unhappy, because there are a lot of cute little "facts" about philosophers in this book that I'd like to hand on to. So I hope that I'm wrong.

BTW, here's a really interesting article about Pythagoras, by M. F. Burnyeat, that I found when looking for information on this topic. Burnyeat doesn't mention anything about Pythagoras being a myth, even though it seems like the sort of thing that would be mentioned in this article were it an acceptable hypothesis.

Mathematics sightseeing in Greece.

junipero — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:48:51 -0800

Can anyone suggest good places to visit in Greece (or nearby) that are relevent to mathematics? Much more detail inside. I teach mathematics at a small private school and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to apply for a grant for $25,000 set aside for further educating full-time faculty. Our school is in need of a fourth year math class for students who are not "math-minded". The junior class this year will be the last class to graduate that is not required to take three years of math.

I am going to apply for the grant and if I receive the money I would like to take a trip to Greece, as it is one of the birthplaces of mathematics. Obviously, I would like to visit the Pythagoras sculpture in Samos, but other than that does anyone know of any good places to visit that have to do with mathematics?

My plan is to write a curriculum for a year-long course that can be taken all together, or can be take as an elective for a semester. The first semester would focus on the history of math (more the focus of my trip than the second semester). The second semester would focus more on practical math that would be advantageous to our students as they make their way into the real world.

I would like to be based in Athens for about three weeks. I could rent a car, take boats, or fly if necessary in order to travel. I would absolutely love to travel to Alexandria, Egypt to see Euclid's hometown, but i don't know how much of ancient Alexandria is still standing (if any?).

Any and all mathematics related locations in the world are welcome, but I am mainly looking at the Greece/Turkey/Egypt area.

Aeschylus a Pythagorean?

catherinem — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:36:41 -0800

Was Aeschylus a Pythagorean? ClassicsFilter: I have read on the web that Cicero writes that Aeschylus was a Pythagorean.
Is this so? If so, in which work is Cicero saying this? Is there more evidence in other places?
Many thanks,
C