Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Definition: Pythagoras from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

pronunciationpronunciation

Pythagoras ca580– ca500 b.c. Greek philos. & math.

Pythagoras

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(pĭthăg'ӘrӘs), c.582–c.507 B.C. , pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school. He migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religious society or order similar to, and possibly influenced by, the earlier Orphic cult. We know little of his life and nothing of his writings. Since his disciples came to worship him as a demigod and to attribute all the doctrines of their order to its founder, it is virtually impossible to distinguish his teachings from those of his followers. The Pythagoreans are best known for two teachings: the transmigration of souls and the theory that numbers constitute the true nature of things. The believers performed purification rites and followed moral, ascetic, and dietary rules to enable their souls to achieve a higher rank in their subsequent lives and thus eventually be liberated from the “wheel of birth.” This belief also led them to regard the sexes as equal, to treat slaves humanely, and to respect animals. The…
780 results

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Great Thinkers A-Z
'sooner or later,’ the philosopher Barbara Amodio writes, ‘philosophers turn into mystics.’ Many a philosopher would disagree, but there can be little doubt that the origins of western philosophy owe much to an ancient Greek mathematician, philosopher and mystic named Pythagoras. Pythagoras is a…
| 820 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Greek philosopher and founder of the Pythagorean school. The Pythagoreans were bound to their teacher by rigid vows and were ascetic in their way of life. They believed in the transmigration of souls and that numbers and their interrelationships constitute the true nature of the universe. Pythagoras…
| 135 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World
Best known for his Pythagorean Theorem,...
(b. ca. 580–d. 500 BCE ) pre-Socratic philosopher and mathematician No writings by Pythagoras survive, and his life and work are clouded in mystery; most information comes from statements by later writers. Pythagoras apparently pioneered the study of mathematics in the We... …
| 1,098 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Best known for his Pythagorean Theorem,...
(b. ca. 580–d. 500 BCE ) pre-Socratic philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was a Greek thinker and contributor to pre-Socratic philosophy who was born on the isle of Samos. He fled tyranny to establish a school in southern Italy at Croton, which contained both scientific and mystical streams of…
| 582 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The Greek philosopher and mathematician of the 6th century  bc (born at Samos), to whom was attributed the enunciation of the doctrines of the transmigration of souls and of the harmony of the spheres, and also the proof of the 47th proposition in the 1st book of Euclid, which is hence called the…
| 466 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article PYTHAGORAS

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English author and physician I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret magic of numbers. Religio Medici 12 Elliot Stock. London England . 1883. No biographical data available Pythagoras defies categorization: a primary thinker in philosophy, mathematics, music and…
| 364 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born c. 570 bce , Samos, Ionia—died c. 500–490 bce , Metapontum, Lucanium) Greek philosopher and mathematician. He established a community of followers in Croton who adhered to a way of life he prescribed. His school of philosophy reduced all meaning to numerical relationships and proposed that all…
| 200 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article PYTHAGORAS

From Handy Answer: The Handy Western Philosophy Answer Book: The Ancient Greek Influence on Modern Understanding Full text Article PHILOSOPHY BEFORE SOCRATES
Pythagoras was one of the most influential...
Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 B.C.E. ) was the mysterious and legendary founder of a monastic religious community in the Greek colony of Croton in southern Italy and the creator of a unique mathematical and musical view of the world whose influence extends down to the present day. Members of the…
| 1,845 words , 2 images

Full text Article Pythagoras

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
c.580-c.500 BC Greek philosopher, mystic and mathematician Pythagoras was probably born in Samos, although the traditions regarding his life are confused. About 530 BC he left Samos, perhaps because of enmity to the ruler Polycrates , and settled in Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, where he…
| 341 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Pythagoras

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(pĭthăg'ӘrӘs), c.582–c.507 B.C. , pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school. He migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religious society or order similar to, and possibly influenced by, the earlier Orphic cult. We know little of his life and…
| 414 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources