Pythagoras

(550 - 500 B.C.) Pythagoras is believed to be the intellectual catalyst for the enlightenment, Pythagoras was considered the "orphic spirit on Earth." The Orphics (after Orpheus) believed that life on earth directly affected life after death. They held that the soul is immortal and is the best part of a human being.

Pythagoras moved from Samos to southern Italy and founded a society of disciples characterized by common beliefs and observances. He held sway over the group and the city for a time, was overthrown, moved away, and died. After his death he was credited with being a sorcerer, performing miracles, being a mystic, and founding the modern school of mathematics. He professed a doctrine known as "metempsychosis" which provided for repeated reincarnation of souls with punishments and rewards for behavior in previous incarnations.

Pythagoras' followers believed that the discovery of knowledge was ecstasy. He called this "passionate-sympathetic-contemplation." One gained this state through conversation/dialectic. Plato, another Orphic and fan of Pythagoras held that PSC can't be expressed through the world of perception/appearances, but rather through the intellectual searching of the eternal world of perfect forms. Both Plato and Pythagoras preferred a mathematical way of viewing the world.

Pythagoreanism

Is the school of thought that grew from the teachings of Pythagoras. Pythagoreanism has 11 basic tenets:

1. The universe is an eternal rational unity: a ONE
2. It functions according to mathematical principles
3. Reality cannot be known by means of our senses but must be comprehended by seeing the universe as a rational harmonious patterning of geometric forms, ratios, and numbers
4. The fundamental principles of the universe are limiting/unlimiting, order/disorder, even/odd, good/bad.
5. The immaterial soul of the human being is a fragment of the world soul.
6. The soul is imprisoned (entombed) and seeks to unite itself fully again with the world soul.
7. Souls transmigrate at death from one body to another body.
8. Souls exist in all living things
9. Animals and beans must not be eaten
10. Moderation in all things is a virtue.
11. Knowledge of oneself is essential to righteous behavior.

From: Angeles, Peter A. Dictionary of Philosophy. NY: Barnes and Noble, 1981.