Pythagoreans

Aristotle's expression, “so-called Pythagoreans,” suggests both that at his time this group of thinkers was commonly called Pythagoreans and, at the same time, calls into question the actual connection between these thinkers and Pythagoras himself.

Pythagoreanism Huffman, Carl 2006

First, Aristotle is emphatic that the system dates after the time of Pythagoras, and second, his expression “so-called Pythagoreans” is most reasonably understood to suggest that, although he knows that the name

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

Although some scholars continue to argue that most of what Aristotle ascribes to “the so-called Pythagoreans” should be regarded as Pythagoras 'own teaching (Riedweg 2005, 77-80), Aristotle's testimony doubly distances Pythagoras himself from the Philolaic system.

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

On the other hand, Aristotle always presents the philosophical system of limiters and unlimiteds, which placed an emphasis on the role of number in understanding the cosmos and which included the astronomical system built around the central fire, as the work of “the so-called Pythagoreans,” whom he dates to the second half of the fifth century, at the same time as or a little earlier than the atomists (e.g. Metaph. 985b23 ff.).

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

As Burkert notes, that written source cannot have been ascribed to “the so-called Pythagoreans” and must have been assigned to some author.

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

Aristotle also identifies a distinct group of these so-called Pythagoreans who formulated a set of basic principles known as the table of opposites.

Pythagoreanism Huffman, Carl 2006

A passage in Iamblichus (VP 80) similarly argues that the Pythagoreans were the true followers of Pythagoras, while the Pythagorists just emulated them.

Pythagoreanism Huffman, Carl 2006

The evidence for this split is quite confused in the later tradition, but Burkert (1972a, 192 ff.) has shown that the original and most objective account of the split is found in a passage of Aristotle's book on the Pythagoreans, which is preserved in Iamblichus (On Common Mathematical Science, 76.19 ff).

Pythagoras Huffman, Carl 2006

There are nonetheless a number of thinkers of the fifth and fourth century BC, who can legitimately be called Pythagoreans, although often little is known about them except their names.

Pythagoreanism Huffman, Carl 2006

By the late fourth century AD many of the most prominent Greek philosophers including Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle come to be called Pythagoreans, with no historical justification.

Pythagoreanism Huffman, Carl 2006