What was Pythagoreanism in ancient philosophy?

Pythagoreanism was a system of esoteric, religious, and metaphysical beliefs founded by Pythagoras in the 6th century BC. Originating in Croton in southern Italy, the tradition combined communal asceticism and mathematical philosophy with doctrines like the transmigration of souls. It exerted a profound influence on Plato and subsequent Western philosophy.

What we know

• Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC based on the teachings of Pythagoras, who established his first community in Croton around 530 BC. [2, 5]
• The teaching most securely identified with Pythagoras is metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, holding that every soul is immortal and enters a new body upon death. [5]
• Pythagorean ideas heavily influenced Plato and later inspired a revival known as Neopythagoreanism in the 1st century BC. [2, 3, 5]
• As originally conceived by the Pythagoreans, the Monad represents the Supreme Being, divinity, or the totality of all things. [4]

Still open

• Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's own education and influences, and historians debate whether he personally made the mathematical and scientific discoveries credited to him.
• It remains debated whether Pythagoras was killed during political persecution in Croton or escaped to Metapontum to die there.

Where to go next

• whoWho was Pythagoras of Samos?
• what followedHow did Neopythagoreanism revive these doctrines?
• how it workedWhat is the Monad in ancient cosmology?
• whereWhere did the first Pythagorean community form?
• the bigger pictureHow did Pythagoreanism shape Western philosophy through Plato?
• an unexpected connectionHow did ancient Pythagorean teachings inspire the modern vegetarian movement?Pythagoras's doctrine of the transmigration of souls, as portrayed in Ovid's Metamorphoses, later influenced the development of modern vegetarianism.

Sources

• [1]Pythagoreanism (Wikidata Q191359) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Pythagoreanism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Neopythagoreanism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Monad (philosophy) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Pythagoras · CC BY-SA 4.0