Pythagoras contribution to mathematics

Pythagoras contribution to philosophy
Pythagoras born and died
When was pythagoras born

•

Pythagoras

Greek philosopher (c. 570 – c. 495 BC)

"Pythagoras of Samos" redirects here. For the Samian statuary, see Pythagoras (sculptor).

For other uses, see Pythagoras (disambiguation).

Pythagoras of Samos^[a] (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας; c. 570 – c. 495 BC)^[b] was an ancient IonianGreek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend; modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle.

In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five regular solids, the Theory of Proportions, the sphericity of the

•

Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the development of mathematics yet we know relatively little about his mathematical achievements. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians, where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which certainly means that today Pythagoras is a mysterious figure.

We do have details of Pythagoras's life from early biographies which use important original sources yet are written by authors who attribute divine powers to him, and whose aim was to present him as a god-like figure. What we present below is an attempt to collect together the most reliable sources to reconstruct an account of Pythagoras's life. There is fairly good agreement on the main events of his life but most of the dates are disputed with different scholars giving dates which differ by 20 years. Some historians treat all this information as merely lege

•

Scientist of the Day - Pythagoras of Samos

Imagined portrait of Pythagoras of Samos, engraving in The History of Philosophy, by Thomas Stanley, 1687 (Linda Hall Library)

Pythagoras, an early Greek social reformer, religious thinker, and possible mathematician, was born on the island of Samos, just off the coast of Ionia, sometime around 570 BCE. We know very little about him, except that he left Samos at the age of 40 or so and moved to the Greek colony of Croton in what was then Magna Graecia, and is now the boot of Italy. He founded a religious brotherhood, bound to secrecy, and taught metempsychosis, the migration of souls after death, to his followers. The brotherhood also adhered to strict dietary rules. The Pythagoreans, as they were called, later came to advocate the importance of number and mathematics, and Pythagoras himself may have introduced those ideas, but we really don’t know. Most scholars of Pythagoras seem to feel that at least some of the passion that Pythagoreans had for numbers and harmony must have come down from the great man himself.