Brief review of the teachings of the Pythagorean school. Pythagorean school

But almost simultaneously with the materialistic view of the world, idealistic ideas arise, which are closely connected with religion and are a refined form of religious ideas. This idealistic view of the world was developed by Pythagoras and his followers. The reactionary nature of Pythagoreanism was also manifested in the secret nature of the activities of the school, whose political views reflected the ideology of aristocratic reaction. There are legends about Pythagoras that he was in Egypt, was initiated by the priests into the secrets of their sacred science.

A characteristic feature of the Pythagorean school is the deification of numbers: "Numbers rule the world." The Pythagoreans searched in numerical terms mystical secrets and revelations. The omnipotence of numbers is manifested in the fact that everything in the world can be subordinated to numerical relations. There is a legend that Pythagoras perceived the discovery of the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with its side as the beginning of chaos, and ordered his students to keep this discovery a secret. The Pythagoreans believed in the transmigration of souls, demanded the veneration of gods, ancestors, authorities. Justice is mathematically expressed by the square, for it renders equal to equal.

But, after the Ionians it was impossible to return to the religious concept of the universe. In their physics, the Pythagoreans were forced to develop an idea of ​​the structure of the universe, in which, despite the presence of mystical elements, the views of Anaximander and Anaximenes received further development. This circumstance, which we reveal throughout the history of science, reveals the fact that the struggle between materialism and idealism leads to the victory of materialism.

This is precisely what the cosmogony of the Pythagoreans, set forth later by the Pythagorean Philolaus (470-399), speaks of. Considering the sphere as the most perfect form, the Pythagoreans taught about the sphericity of the Earth and about its movement along the sphere around the “central fire”. Nine more spheres revolve around the same central fire: the sphere of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, the stars and, finally, the “counter-earth” (the body introduced by the Pythagoreans in order to obtain a harmonic number of celestial spheres - ten). The Pythagoreans taught that the movement of these spheres is accompanied by harmonic musical sounds, inaudible to us, coordinated among themselves (“the harmony of the world”). Lenin rightly saw in this cosmogony of the Pythagoreans "a hint at the structure of matter." It should be noted that Copernicus referred to the teaching of the Pythagoreans about the movement of the earth, and the church in its rulings called the Copernican System “false Pythagorean teaching”.

Of the other Daturphilosophical views of the Pythagoreans, let us mention their theory of "visual rays", which was very widespread in ancient optics. According to this theory, vision is due to special rays emanating from the eyes. But at the same time, the Pythagoreans taught that the rays from the Sun penetrate "through thick and cold ether." In this regard, Lenin noted: “So, for thousands of years, the conjecture about the ether has existed, remaining to this day, a guess. But already now 1000 times more digs are ready, leading to the solution of the issue, the scientific definition of the ether.”

The merit of the Pythagoreans is the introduction of mathematics into natural science, a guess about the structure of the universe. But from the Pythagoreans, in accordance with their idealistic views, comes the bare symbolism and mysticism of numbers, which leads to reactionary, anti-scientific statements in our time.

The most important stage in the development of ancient philosophy was the Pythagorean school. The beginning of the formation of the first universities in the history of mankind is connected with the activity of this philosophical school.

The school was founded by Pythagoras (b. 580-570 BC - d. at the end of the 5th century BC). Before its founding, Pythagoras visited the entire ancient world, lived in Egypt and Babylon (22 years in Egypt and 12 in Babylon). The purpose of the school was a social mission, to which Pythagoras attached great importance - the religious and moral reform of society. "Pythagoras" is not a name, but a nickname meaning "persuasive speech."

According to the testimony of the ancient Greek historian of philosophy Diogenes Laertes, as a result of his first speech (lecture), read in the city of Croton, Pythagoras acquired 2 thousand students, who formed the school. They created a "state" - "Greater Greece". The school was based on the laws and rules of the teacher Pythagoras. The school of Pythagoras survived nine generations.

At his school, gymnastics and medicine, music and sciences (especially mathematics) alternated.

Pythagoras was the first to call philosophy by this name, but he considered the principles of philosophy to be numbers and the proportions (harmonies) contained in them. Numbers, he taught, contain the mystery of things, and universal harmony is the perfect expression of God. The seven sacred modes, built on the seven notes of the seven-string, correspond to the seven colors of light, the seven planets, and the seven modes of existence, repeated in all spheres of material and spiritual life, from the smallest to the greatest.

In the school of Pythagoras, much attention was paid to the moral life. Life was supposed to contribute to the purification of the soul and the purification of the body, which was achieved by proper hygiene and strict discipline of morals. To conquer one's passions was the first duty of the initiated boy or girl. He who has not brought his own nature into harmony is not capable of reflecting the divine harmony.

On average, 235 students studied at the same time in the school of Pythagoras (217 men and 18 women). Pythagoras greatly appreciated the virtue of a consecrated woman, but was distrustful of an ordinary woman. One student who asked Pythagoras when he could approach a woman, he answered: “When your peace will tire you.” A moderate lunch for students at school consisted, as a rule, of bread, honey and olives.

Many interesting legends have been preserved about the school of philosophers. A person striving to become a disciple passed tests. (The tests were quite severe. For example, they had to spend the night in a cave where monsters and ghosts “appeared”. Or: the student was imprisoned in a cell, given a board and demanded to find the meaning of one of the Pythagorean symbols. It was necessary to explain: “What does the triangle inscribed in a circle?" The man spent 12 hours alone with this task, having a mug of water and a piece of bread, then he was led into the assembly hall, where all the students were assembled, who were supposed to provoke him to indignation - laugh, etc. - a he - to show his mind and restraint, many cried, were rude, threw the board, scolded the school, etc., then Pythagoras came out and announced whether the subject had passed the exam and whether he was accepted to the school).

The Pythagorean school was a kind of political club and friendly community. Philosophy was the main occupation here. And it was perceived as a special way of life, different from the ordinary. Those who wished to enter this union underwent a three-year probationary period. The expression “Pythagorean five-year silence” has survived to this day. This thought form meant a test of endurance for those who were not too diligent in their studies. Silence, limited to a short period of time, was considered necessary for serious people. But talkers were punished with a kind of exile for up to five years. This practice entered the history of philosophy under the name "Pythagorean silence". Pythagoras believed that the beginning of wisdom is to learn to think and unlearn how to talk.

Very soon, the religious and moral orientation of the school came into conflict with the dominant Greek democracy and its principles, that is, it acquired a political orientation, causing bitterness among opponents. In the end, the school was burned down, most of the followers of the Pythagorean school and the teacher himself died (according to another version, he hid and then starved himself to death).

Pythagorean philosophy was a form of objective idealism. Pythagoras called his students "mathematicians", because education began with the doctrine of numbers. "Sacred Mathematics" was for Pythagoras the science of principles, in which numbers meant the essence of things. The number of Pythagoras is not an abstract quantity, but an essential and active quality of the supreme Unit, i.e. God, the source of world harmony. The science of numbers became in his teaching the science of living forces, of divine qualities in action; both in the worlds and in man, that is, both in the macrocosm and in the microcosm. Thus, in Pythagoras, both theogony and theology were based on the doctrine of numbers.

Here is the theogony: in transcendental mathematics, it was algebraically proved that 0 multiplied by infinity equals one, 0=1. Zero is an infinite being. Eternity, in the language of the temples, was signified by a circle or a snake biting its own tail; it is a symbol of Infinity moving on its own impulse. When Infinity defines itself, it produces numbers which it embraces in its unity and governs them in perfect harmony. Such is the transcendent meaning of the first problem of Pythagorean theogony, which explains why the great Monad (i.e., the One, the Indivisible) contains all small numbers, and why all numbers proceed from the great unity set in motion.

Theology also followed from theogony: God, the Indivisible Essence, has the One as its number. It contains Infinity, whose name is Father, Creator, or Eternally Masculine. Her sign is Fire, the symbol of the Spirit. This is the first.

Second: the great Monad acts through the creative Dyad. From the very moment of his manifestation, God is dual: an inseparable essence and a divisible substance: the male principle, active, life-giving, and the feminine principle, passive or plastic, living matter. The dyad is the fusion of the Eternal Masculine and the Eternal Feminine in God. In humanity, woman represents nature, and the perfect likeness of God is not man, but man and woman. Hence their irresistible, powerful and fatal attraction to each other.

Third: the manifested world is threefold, for man consists of three elements fused together (body, spirit and soul); the whole universe is divided into three concentric spheres (the natural world, the human world, the divine world). The triad or law of trinity is the formative law of things and the key of life. So, 1 = 2 = 3 (Monad = Dyad = Triad).

Pythagoras went further in his teaching about numbers. In each of them he determined one or another principle, this or that law, this or that active force of the Universe. He said that the main teachings are contained in the first four numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4; for by adding or multiplying them together, all other numbers can be found. Pythagoras attached special importance to the numbers 7 and 10. 7 consists of 3 and 4. This number means the connection of man (he is tripartite) with the Deity (Unit). 7 is the number of Great Initiates (they know the secrets of being). 10 - is formed from the addition of the first four numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) and is a perfect number, for it expresses all the beginnings of the Divine. These beginnings, having developed, merged into a new unity.

Mysteries of the macrocosm, Pythagoras believed, in the secret of the microcosm. The inscription above the Delphic temple read: "Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and the Gods." Pythagoras saw great meaning in this phrase.

Pythagoras was also the author of the ancient philosophy of soul transmigration (transmigration). However, unfortunately, it was expressed by him very sparingly (due to a vow of silence) and has come down to us only in the form of fragments of this teaching. The philosopher Xenophanes, according to Diogenes Laertes, spoke about Pythagoras: “... when they beat some puppy, he, passing by, took pity on him and said: “Stop beating him! It contains the soul of a person dear to me, which I recognized by hearing the sounds it made. It is also known about the teachings of Pythagoras that he believed the soul to be immortal, but passing into the body of other living beings. Further, that everything that happens in the world is repeated again at certain intervals of time, but that nothing new happens at all, and that all living beings must be considered homogeneous among themselves.

They say about Pythagoras that he was able to hear the harmony of the Universe, to perceive the universal harmony of the spheres and the luminaries moving in them, which a common person couldn't hear; in the sensations and thinking of Pythagoras was an unusual power, the ability to see each of the existing things ..

By the 3rd century to i. e. Pythagoreanism, as a philosophical trend, disappeared. It was revived only in the 1st century. BC e. in fusion with Platonism and other objective-idealistic schools of religious and philosophical direction.

So, the ontology of the Pythagorean school is the doctrine of numbers. For the primary and basis of being, Pythagoras took the symbol of this being - the number. The epistemology of the school is mathematics. With the help of mathematics, and only mathematics, the Pythagoreans studied the secrets of being, macro- and microcosm.

It is believed that Pythagoras for the first time called himself not just a thinker, but a philosopher, creating a term that can be translated from Greek as “lover of wisdom.” He is known as a philosopher, mathematician, mystic, politician and founder of the religious and political trend - Pythagoreanism. The name of the thinker is translated as “persuasive speech”, and he fully justified this by gathering many devoted students and founding his own school. The philosophy of Pythagoras is multifaceted and of great interest.

Biography

Modern science does not know the exact date when Pythagoras was born. According to historians, 580 BC can be considered the most likely. The place of birth was Greece, the island of Samos. The names of his parents are known: his father's name was Mnesarchus, and he was engaged in processing gold, and his mother was Parthenia, or Pythiades. It is believed that the philosopher had two more younger brothers, whose names were Tyrrhenus and Evnost, whose biography was not documented.

There is a legend that says that the parents of the future thinker went to Delphi during their honeymoon trip, where they met a local oracle. He told them that soon the couple would have a son, who was destined to become a sage. The prophecy quickly came true, and the son was named Pythagoras in honor of Pythia, the priestess of the god Apollo. To contribute to the fulfillment of the prophecy, the boy's father surrounded him with care and helped him get a better education, and also created an altar to the sun god.

From early childhood, Pythagoras became interested in science and showed unique abilities. Taught him music, painting, rhetoric, reading and writing - Germodamant. When the boy was 18 years old, his next mentor was Pherekides of Syros, from whom the future philosopher received knowledge in medicine, physics, cosmology and other sciences.

After living for several years in Lesbos, Pythagoras left for the city of Miletus to take lessons from Thales, who was the founder of the first Greek school where philosophy was taught. Then, Pythagoras continued his education in Egypt, becoming familiar with the secrets of the priests and himself becoming one of them.

The beginning of the Persian War stopped the path of development and education of the philosopher, because he was captured and spent the time of captivity in Babylon. There he met Persian magicians, who introduced him to mystical rituals, astronomy and arithmetic. During the same period, he studied the view of the Eastern peoples on medicine and healing. The Persians believed that the listed sciences have magical origin, and Pythagoras also adopted this opinion, basing philosophical and mathematical theories on it.

Having learned about the scientist prisoner, 12 years after the start of the war, the Persian Khan released Pythagoras. Then the sage returned to his native city to teach science to his contemporaries. He gave lessons in outdoors and anyone could attend. But students received a probationary period that lasted up to five years. During this period, they were forbidden to ask questions during class. Many prominent politicians, historians, astronomers and the scholars of that time were pupils of Pythagoras. Modern mathematicians still use the discoveries of the philosopher: the Pythagorean theorem and the multiplication table, which was originally called the Pythagorean table.

At the same time, in his sixties, he meets his future wife, Feana. She later bore him a son and a daughter. According to some sources, Pythagoras' wife was the daughter of his friend, the thinker Brontin.

During the democratic uprising in Croton, where the school of Pythagoras was located, the philosopher left for the city of Metapont. How he died is unknown. According to one version, he was killed by the one to whom he refused to conduct an occult rite. According to another version, he was killed during skirmishes with the rebels. It is believed that death overtook him at the age of about 90 years.

Pythagorean Union

Pythagoras gained fame while living in Croton. He came to this city, wanting to escape from the tyranny of the ruler Polycarp. Here he founded the Pythagorean Union, which became not only philosophical school, but also a political and religious organization that sought to influence the moral views of the thinker's contemporaries.

Knowing how to attract attention due to charisma and outstanding personal qualities, Pythagoras quickly recruited students. He was a talented political orator and preached high moral ideas and life principles.

Being a mystic, Pythagoras devised special sacraments for the initiation of new members into the Pythagorean brotherhood. After passing a rigorous selection, new followers received the right to listen to Pythagoras from afar, without asking any questions and seeing him only through the curtain. Their development was carried out through listening to cleansing music and ascetic life. Beginners took a vow of silence in order to be able to think more.

The Pythagoreans adhered to the following principles of life, which Pythagoras proclaimed as the basis of morality:

• avoidance of tricks;
• cutting off ignorance from the soul and diseases from the body;
• renunciation of luxury;
• suppression of any quarrels.

There were only three things to achieve in life:

• beautiful and glorious;
• useful;
• bringing pleasure, but the pleasure is righteous, and not vulgar.

Pythagoras demanded from his followers the observance of universal human values, which are encouraged today by various confessions. There was a list of things that the philosopher's students had to do in the morning:

• poetry reading;
• performing mnemonic exercises;
• meeting the sunrise by the sea;
• bathing and walking;
• paying homage to deities.

In the Pythagorean Union, one could learn psychology and medicine. There were developed methods for the development of the mind, observation and memory. Pythagoras considered it important to promote not only physical, but also spiritual development people. He developed the concept of "kalokagatiya", which means the ideal of a harmonious person, which combines the beautiful, or aesthetic, and ethical principles.

Philosophy of Pythagoras

The Pythagorean school, founded by the thinker in the 6th-4th century BC, became his main legacy. It contains the main postulates of the philosophy of Pythagoras. The main idea of ​​his philosophy is that the universe is a "magnificent order", or cosmos. The whole world, according to the Pythagoreans, is a whole, subject to the law of harmony and the laws of numbers. This whole is ordered.

The difficulty in studying the philosophy of Pythagoras lies in the fact that the thinker did not keep notes and lectured orally. Most of the data has survived to this day thanks to his followers.

Pythagorean philosophy is based on two pillars:

• mystical teachings and religion;
• scientific knowledge.

The Teaching also singles out the category of two opposites:

• boundless;
• limit.

The first cannot be the single beginning of all things, otherwise the second could not exist at all. A list was compiled, which included all the opposites that exist on the planet and in space:

• boundless and limiting;
• right and left;
• calmness and movement;
• light color and dark;
• one and many;
• even and odd numbers;
• male and female;
• straight and curved;
• square - in the form of an elongated rectangle;
• good and evil.

At the junction of these opposites, world harmony is born. The law that the universe obeys says that it is possible to measure and realize the integrity of the one with the many only through numbers. Numbers are the beginning of all measures. Sound harmony is concentrated in numbers, obeying mathematical laws.

The philosophy of Pythagoras contains not only reasoning about wisdom, but also a listing of life principles that every person should have. Developing this philosophy, the followers of the thinker were engaged in mathematical science. They recognized that everything that exists in the world has a mathematical beginning, expressed in numbers. An analogy is drawn between it and material things. Moreover, some numbers characterized the qualities of the mind or soul of a person, others determined justice.

Pythagoras also believed that his followers should lead the right way of life. It was impossible to eat products of animal origin, especially such entrails as the heart - after all, the life of a living being is contained in it. Beans were also included in the list of forbidden foods, because the legend said that they were created with the help of the blood of Dionysus-Zagreus. Alcoholic drinks, ignorant behavior and swear words were also excluded. So the Pythagoreans cleansed the soul and body. The described principles did not apply to those students who set themselves the goal only to study the exact sciences. The principles were followed only by a circle of selected, "enlightened" students.

Pythagorean doctrine of numbers

Numerology is an important part of the philosophy of Pythagoras and his followers. The sage associated the knowledge of the nature and meaning of numbers with the knowledge of the essence of phenomena and objects. Each category received a numerical property, including such phenomena as death, illness, suffering, and others.

Pythagoras was the first to divide all numbers into even and odd. He believed that the square of any number symbolizes worldly equality and justice. He “gave” the number eight to death, and nine to constancy. The female sex was equated to them to even numbers, and the male gender to odd numbers. The number five was taken as a symbol of marriage. With the help of the magic of numbers, he taught to determine the compatibility of lovers with each other, to look into their future.

Knowing the true meaning of numbers, people can influence the whole society and the surrounding reality. At the same time, everything is based on geometric ideas about numbers. So, the number "one" is a point, if you add one more to it, then a straight line can be drawn between them, while three points can become a plane. The diagonals of a regular pentagon form the Pythagorean star, which became the symbol of the Pythagorean school.

Such a star is a symbol of life, because it is very common in wildlife - for example, flowers of forget-me-nots and apple trees have the shape of a star-shaped pentagon. But such a pentagon is never found in the phenomena of inanimate nature. It protects living things from petrification and crystallization.

Not only mathematical constructions, but the Pythagoreans reduced all reality to numbers. Mathematical coloring, in their opinion, had any political, social, physical and religious phenomena. We can say that Pythagoras reduced philosophy to mathematics, because the worldview system he introduced is based on it. Everything that can be known in the world is known through numbers. Connection with the divine principle is possible only through mathematical dogmas.

Harmony in Pythagorean philosophy

The ideas of Pythagoras about harmony are inextricably linked with the doctrine of numbers. He sees harmony in the division of all things into even and odd. The first is unlimited and the second is limited. Division begins with the number "two", and "three" symbolizes the reconciliation of opposites.

Separate objects are imperfect, they become perfect only in unity with their opposites. The meaning of harmony is in the reconciliation of opposites, smoothing out imperfections. It manifests itself in a combination of tones, which are also represented by numbers. In accordance with this statement, Pythagoras deduced that the difference in tones corresponds to the proportions that the length of the strings has. musical instruments. Thanks to numbers, harmony of tones is achieved and beautiful music is born.

Pythagorean doctrine of the universe

Pythagoras was the first to use the word "cosmos" to refer to the universe. The latter, according to the philosopher, was characterized by order and symmetry, from which beauty flowed. He taught followers that to know the beauty of the Universe is given only to those who keep their own macrocosm in order, being a harmonious person and leading a correct life.

Like many other Ionian sages, the Pythagoreans set themselves the task of explaining how the universe happened and works. Since mathematics was a science carefully studied by them, they came closer to unraveling this question than their contemporaries.

According to Pythagoras and his disciples, the center of the universe is fire, or the monad, which is equal to one. This fire is the first and most important celestial body. Thanks to him, other celestial bodies were born, the order between which is maintained by this central fiery force. The planets, being in boundless space, are attracted to the monad and thus acquire limits.

The Pythagoreans believed that ten celestial bodies were moving around this fire in the direction from west to east. Those bodies that are closer to the fire are called planets, and those located at a distance are called fixed stars. The Moon, Earth and Sun are farthest from the center in this system.

The students of the school of Pythagoras knew that the Earth makes a circle every day. They believed that when the Sun and the Earth were on the same side of the central fire, day came in our world. When the Sun and the Earth were opposite each other, the world was ruled by night. Depending on the path of the Sun on Earth, certain seasons begin.

Pythagoras taught that not only the Earth is surrounded by air, but also other celestial bodies. And this meant that they also have flora and fauna.

Harmony of the Spheres

The Pythagorean theory of the harmony of the spheres stands apart. Under it, the philosopher meant the musical sound inherent in celestial bodies, and the musical and mathematical patterns in the cosmic device.

Pythagoras said that all celestial bodies are fixed to invisible spheres and rotate in the same way as they do. Everyone has it celestial body has its own sphere, the first seven spheres correspond to the seven planets, and the eighth to the fixed stars. When the spheres rotate, they produce beautiful harmonious music, which is called the “harmony of the spheres”.

The Pythagoreans believed that the human ear is immune to this music, because it hears it from birth and is too accustomed to it.

The numerical nature of the world was explained through the harmony of the spheres. Pythagoras argued that the human soul, like the cosmos, is harmonious, so the ability to hear the music of the heavenly spheres can become healing for the spirit. The followers of the thinker - for example, Plato - have complicated this teaching. Thanks to them, the theory survived the ancient world and entered the medieval and Western European teachings about the aesthetics of music.

Until modern times, many poets and even astrologers believed in the harmony of the spheres and dedicated their works to it.

Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls

The philosophy of Pythagoras says that the soul is enclosed in a bodily shell for the sins committed. But until it is separated from it, the soul loves the body and is able to receive worldly impressions only thanks to it.

When she dies, she is released from this prison and opens the incorporeal life, going to a better world.

A better world is available only to souls who have established dignity and harmony in themselves during their bodily life. If a person has lived an impure and inharmonious life, his soul will return back to earth and will wander through the bodies of animals and people until it reaches harmony.

Like Eastern theories, Pythagorean believes that earthly life was given to the soul so that it would be cleansed and prepared for another life. For this to happen, a person during his lifetime must observe the commandments and principles, which are recommendations regarding proper nutrition and moral life. There were also rules for the burial of the dead and those that regulated the type of clothing for prayers.

The purified soul fell into the realm of Apollo, where there was no way for the inharmonious, impure and disorderly. The reduction of the wanderings of the soul could be facilitated by conducting mysterious rites after the death of a person.

Pythagoras himself claimed that he could recognize the soul of the deceased in a new body if he knew him during his lifetime.

The philosophy of Pythagoras is ambiguous and full of mysticism, but many of his discoveries still remain relevant and are recognized by modern scientists as true.

Basing everything on the concept of measure and number, the Pythagorean school tried to explain by them the forms of objects and the relationship of individual objects to the primitive unity of being. She determined the laws of these relations prime numbers, constituting, in her opinion, the essence of all objects and forms of objects. The Pythagoreans likened the unit to a point, the number 2 corresponded, in their opinion, to the line, the number 3 to the plane, the number 4 corresponded to a separate object. They based these conclusions on the following considerations: “a straight line has two points as its limits; the simplest rectilinear figure has three lines as its borders; the simplest regular body has four planes as its limits; and a point is an indivisible unit. But not only geometric figures, but the objects themselves, were represented to the Pythagoreans by numbers. All earthy bodies consist, in their opinion, of particles having the shape of a cube; fire particles are in the shape of a tetrahedron or pyramid; particles of air form an octahedron, particles of water form a twenty-hedron, particles of all other simple bodies form a dodecahedron. And the knowledge of form was, according to the teachings of the Pythagorean school, knowledge of the essence of an object, determined solely by its form; therefore, numbers were, in her opinion, not only the form, but also the very essence of objects.

Pythagoras. Bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome