Discuss the Pluralist and Pythagoreans

Pythagoras

530 B.C.

§         Reality is mathematical, as evidenced by the harmonic ratios (octave [2:1] fifth [3:2] and fourth [4:3].

§         Transmigration of souls: each a breath of the world soul locked up in a body.  Abstract inquiry frees us.

§         Earth's a sphere & not at the center.

§         "Fire is composed of twenty four right angled triangles surrounded by four equilaterals."

§         "The square on the hypoteneuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides."

Parmenides.

465 B.C

§         What is -- the One  -- is uncreated, indestructible, eternal & unchanging (and intelligible).

§         Sensed change is illusory.

§         There is no becoming since the coming to be must be either (1) from being or (2) from not being:

§         If (1) there is no becoming (since it already is)

§         If (2) there is no becoming (ex nihilo nihil fit)

§         "What is is." "What is not, is not."  

§         "What need could have made it arise later rather than sooner?  Therefore must it either be all together or not at all."

§         “On path only is left for us to speak of, namely that It is.  In this path … what is, is uncreated and indescructible, for it is complete, immovable, and without end.