Everything about Philolaus totally explained
Philolaus (ca.
480 BC – ca.
385 BC, ) was a
Greek Pythagorean and
Presocratic. He argued that all
matter is composed of limited and unlimited things, and that the
universe is determined by
numbers. He is credited with originating the theory that the
earth wasn't the center of the
universe, and he also believed that there's a "counter-earth", another earth balancing our own planet, in order to bring the number of heavenly bodies up to ten. He also thought that the immortal
soul was imprisoned as a punishment from former lives.
Life
As is the case with most other Presocratic thinkers, "any chronology constructed for his life is a fabric of the loosest possible weave." But that shouldn't diminish the importance of establishing such a chronology, which helps scholars see his relationship to other Pre-Socratics. A passage out of Plato's
Phaedo reveals his influence on two of the characters within the dialogue:
Phaedo takes place, in
399 BC. The dates of his birth and death are culled from his known association with other Pre-Socratics, as well as the date of the burning of the Pythagorean meeting-place (which he fled from), around 454 BC. Besides this chronological outline the details of Philolaus life are unknown to us.
Diogenes Laertius reports that Philolaus and
Eurytus are two of the Pythagoreans that Plato met when he traveled to Italy shortly after the death of Socrates. The pupils of Philolaus and Eurytus were:
Philolaus was a contemporary of
Socrates and
Democritus, but senior to them, and was probably somewhat junior to
Empedocles, and a contemporary of
Zeno of Elea,
Melissus and
Thucydides, so that his birth may be placed at about
480 BC.
Philolaus is variously reported as being born in either
Croton,
Tarentum, or
Metapontum. Croton, Tarentum and Metapontum were all located in southern
Italy.
He was said to have been intimate with Democritus, and was probably one of his teachers. Philolaus was the first Pythagorean to write and disseminate any philosophical treatise at all; he published a book, of which remain only extant fragments of other philosophers and doxographers. According to some accounts, Philolaus, obliged to flee, took refuge first in
Lucania and then at
Thebes, where he'd as pupils
Simmias and
Cebes (
Crito), all three of whom were subsequently present at the death of Socrates in
399 BC. Before this Philolaus had returned to Italy, where he was the teacher of
Archytas (
428–
347 BC). Philolaus was perhaps also connected with the Pythagorean exiles at
Phlius mentioned in
Plato's
Phaedo.
Philolaus spoke and wrote in a Greek
Doric dialect and was the first to propound the doctrine of the motion of the
Earth; some attribute this doctrine to Pythagoras, but there's no evidence in support of either Pythagoras or the younger
Hicetas (ca.
400 – ca.
335 BC) of
Syracuse.
Cosmology
Philolaus' ideas about the
cosmology of the
universe were so drastically different from any previous suppositions about the Earth's place in the cosmos that he simultaneously did away with the ideas of fixed direction in space, and developed one of the first non-geocentric views of the universe. These new ways of thinking quite literally revolved around a
hypothetical astronomical object he called the
Central Fire.
A popular misconception about Philolaus is that he supposed that a sphere of the fixed
stars, the five
planets, the
Sun,
Moon and Earth, all moved round his Central Fire, but as these made up only nine revolving bodies, he conceived in accordance with his
number theory a tenth, which he called Counter-Earth. This fallacy grows largely out of
Aristotle's attempt to lampoon his ideas in his book,
Metaphysics.
In reality, Philolaus' ideas predated the idea of spheres by hundreds of years, and the Counter-Earth was conceived to explain his revolutionary ideas about the lack of up or down in space to the Pythagorean community. He never recognized the fixed stars as any kind of sphere or object.
His new ideas about the nature of the Earth's place in the cosmos influenced
Aristarchus of Samos dramatically.
Nicolaus Copernicus mentions in
De revolutionibus that Philolaus already knew about the Earth's revolution around a central fire.
He supposed the Sun to be a disk of glass which reflects the
light of the universe. He made the
lunar month consist of 29½ days, the
lunar year of 354, and the
solar year of 365½ days.
He was the first to publish a book on the Pythagorean doctrines, a treatise of which Plato made use in the composition of his
Timaeus. Philolaus represented the philosophical system of his school in a work
Peri physeos (
On Nature).
Speusippus, Plato's successor at the
Academy summarized Philolaus's work.
Pythagorean Number Theory
Philolaus was deeply involved in the distinctively Pythagorean number theory, dwelling particularly on the properties inherent in the decad – the sum of the first four
numbers, consequently the fourth
triangular number, the
tetractys – which he called great, all-powerful, and all-producing. The great Pythagorean oath was taken by the sacred
tetractys. The discovery of the
regular solids is attributed to Pythagoras by
Eudemus, and Empedocles is stated to have been the first who maintained that there are four
classical elements. Philolaus, connecting these ideas, held that the elementary nature of bodies depends on their form, and assigned the
tetrahedron to
fire, the
octahedron to
air, the
icosahedron to
water, and the
cube to
earth; the
dodecahedron he assigned to a
fifth element,
aether, or, as some think, to the
universe. This theory, however superficial from the standpoint of observation, indicates considerable knowledge of
geometry and gave a motivating boost to the study of
science.
Philolaus argued that all matter is composed of limiters and unlimiteds. Limiters set boundaries, such as shape and quantity. Unlimiteds are universal forms and rules such as the four elements of earth, air, fire and water and the continua of space and time. Limiters and unlimiteds are combined together in a harmony (harmonia), which can be described mathematically (similar to the combinations of elements in modern chemistry). Philolaus used the musical scale to illustrate his philosophy, whereby whole number ratios limit pleasing sounds (for example, the octave, fifth, and fourth are defined by the ratios 2 : 1, 4 : 3 and 3 : 2).
Following
Parmenides' philosophy, Philolaus regarded the soul as a "mixture and harmony" of the bodily parts; he also assumed a substantial soul, whose existence in the body is an exile.
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