THE PHILOSOPHY OF PYTHAGORAS

PHILOSOPHY OF PYTHAGORAS - (570 to 475 BC)

The term philosophy is simply a Greek word meaning the "love of knowledge." One of the oldest philosophers that coined this term was Pythagoras. Philosophy was broken out into what was called the Quadrivium.  The Quadrivium was a four part series of instruction in math and science. The universe was described by Pythagoras in terms of numbers and ratios.

The first section of the Quadrivium was arithmetic. It dealt with the relationships of numbers. Adding and subtracting sums allowed the early thinkers to understand how to develop methodologies for dealing with the world in the abstraction of a number. Commerce could be conducted and measurements allowed for comparisons. Arithmetic was the first step to make universe more comprehensible and permitted a person to make comparisons by way of size and amounts.

Pythagoras saw the Universe had natural relationships that followed the ratios of whole numbers. The first 10 numbers created a shape called the Tetractys and was considered the symbol of the Pythogoreans.

                                               

Geometry was the 2nd discipline of the ancient philosophers which taught the principles of spacial relationships among the numbers. Pythagoras is best known for his work in geometry. He is famous for the Pythagorean theorem which states that the areas of squares made using the edges of the sides of a right triangle equals the area formed by a square resting on the hypotenuse.

Geometry allowed the philosopher to go from a 2 dimensional view of the world and look at the 3rd dimension of shapes.


                                         


Once a Pythagorean student understood the principles of geometry, the next school of thought that was studied was music. Pythagoras is credited with first understanding the principles of music and devised the Diatonic scale.

Music teaches us how pleasing harmonies are created by notes that hold geometric relationships to each other. The perfect 5th, for instance, was the harmony created when two notes varied to one another as a 3 to 2 ratio. Everything in the universe appeared to tend towards harmonies and harmonies that could be understood with math.
Math provided an ability to proportion the unseen world of vibrations.




The final study of the ancient school of philosophy was astronomy. By examining the movement and position of the planets, it was proposed that the entire universe was based on harmonies. Pythagoras developed a concept known as the Universalis Musicalis. Similar to modern scientific finding such as those of Maxx Planck it was believed the cosmos is produced from vibrations. These vibrations took on a quality that is similar to those derived in music.

We now know that the orbits of many of the solar system's planets have what is called an orbital resonance. Earth and Venus revolve around the sun in 8:13 ratio. The Galilean moons of Jupiter incredibly revolve in a 1:2:4 ratio.



These relationships are inspiring and lead one to find the cosmos filled with inexplicable harmonies and order. Astronomical discoveries constantly give us a new unbounded territory to find awe and wonder in our existence. One of the most ancient inscriptions can be found on the temple of Delphi and was repeated by Pythagoras: "Know thyself and you will know the universe."



In knowing the Universe, we get to also come to know ourselves. Modern science has now proven that the atoms of our very bodies were forged in the hearts of ancient suns. We know the Higgs Field exists from empirical studies made by the largest machine ever made. The Higgs Field is the stuff that makes matter. It is, as Aristotle would have put in, the unmovable mover. We can know ourselves better than ever before!