Pythagoras' Mathematical Philosophy and Formative Journeys

These are great achievements, but the greatest of all is certainly that of the one who conceived the way in which all these could be made possible: that is, that of Pythagoras who first identified mathematics as the instrument containing this power to act upon Nature. However, Pythagoras' message is not only current and contemporary, but as we said, it is also advanced compared to our current conception because, as we will also see in this conference, for Pythagoras mathematics was not only an instrument to act and modify external reality, but was also a lever and instrument to understand and act in the interiority of the individual. To implement in his interiority a complete and total moral, psychic and spiritual reclamation and lead him to obtain profound spiritual realizations.

This is because for Pythagoras Numbers were not only the indication of certain quantities, but also of precise qualities, they were also the symbol of absolute philosophical concepts. For example, we use numbers to indicate quantities (e.g.: "I am 5 years old") in Pythagorean thought each number indicated qualities or concepts of absolute character (e.g.: The 5 "Light, Spirit, Heart"; the 6 "Beauty, the Cosmos" etc...). With this ascetic key as we will see Pythagoras develops precisely a school and exercises for the liberation of man from the phenomenic world in which the soul is imprisoned due to metempsychosis. To understand however how these Pythagorean doctrines and practices emerge, it is first of all fundamental to make a brief summary of Pythagoras' life to describe his very long and extremely interesting formation which will allow us to understand some important aspects of his thought.

Life of Pythagoras

Regarding Pythagoras' life, a premise must be made. First of all, it must be highlighted that the most complete collection of Pythagorean life is certainly that due to Iamblichus about 7 centuries later. So the news we have comes from a period much later than Pythagoras' life and, since many traits of Pythagoras' life are extremely particular and exceptional, this has led many historians to suppose that some details were adjusted by Iamblichus who with this and other writings intended to evoke the spirit of the Pythagoreans and refound the Pythagorean school.

To this must be added the fact that at the time there was no concept of history as a scientific discipline whose task was simply to report facts as they had happened. Conversely, the purpose of history was to highlight and demonstrate a discourse. Fortunately, this is precisely what interests us in this context. The discourse that Iamblichus wants to make is exactly the discourse we want to know. Iamblichus, on the point of reforming the Pythagorean school of which he says "now long abandoned, cloaked in strange doctrines and arcane symbols and on which many apocrypha cast shadow with many difficulties in accessing it", wants to bring the Pythagorean school back to its old splendors and to do this wants to re-highlight the origins of Pythagorean thought in which various traditions of the time converge that are learned, synthesized and reworked by Pythagoras himself for the foundation of his school.

Pythagoras' formative journey is therefore associated with the formation of the structure and doctrine of the Pythagorean school. The places that Pythagoras visits also indicate traditions and doctrines that Pythagoras receives and that become important for the formation of his school and these are the journeys that we will now highlight. According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras begins his pilgrimage shortly before turning 18 (he had already managed to make himself noticed since in adolescence he would have composed and demonstrated the tables and theorem that still bear his name):

Pherecydes of Syros

Before the age of 18, he therefore becomes a disciple of one of the pre-Socratic sages, namely Pherecydes of Syros. The mention of Pherecydes of Syros by Iamblichus is important because Pherecydes of Syros was the first in the Western sphere to introduce the concept of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls from one body to another. We say he was the first in the Western sphere because metempsychosis had long been accepted in the East where under the name of samsara was indicated that doctrine by which the human soul finds itself imprisoned by three precipices (one white, one red, one black) which are actually nothing other than the three fundamental vices or diseases of the soul (pride, craving and ignorance) and thus imprisoned was forced to wander from one body to another from one incarnation to another. The mention of Pherecydes of Syros is therefore extremely important by Iamblichus who immediately clarifies the Pythagorean doctrine as based on the transmigration of souls and therefore specifies its purpose, that is, liberation from the phenomenic world.

Thales and Scientific Formation

Subsequently Pythagoras follows the school of Anaximander and immediately after becomes a direct disciple of another great sage of antiquity, namely Thales. What does the reference to Anaximander and Thales tell us. This reference to Pythagoras' formation is made by Iamblichus to highlight his scientific formation. These great philosophers were the first to proceed in the study of Cosmology, planets, the solar system, the formation and constitution of the Universe as well as the constitution of matter. Thales, considered among other things the first philosopher of Western history, in addition to having developed various mathematical theorems still in use today, was in the West to hypothesize the existence of a single matter from whose transformations all phenomenic manifestations were produced. The idea of a single matter as the basis and foundation of creation, from which some fundamental bricks or geometric atoms will then form is one of the fundamental ideas of the Timaeus which, as we will see, is one of the main expositions of Pythagorean thought. Thales, says Iamblichus, "impressed the master himself with his precocious knowledge" so much that with "curiosity and interest he set about studying"