In Search of Pythagoreanism: Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category (Studia Praesocratica): 4

The history of Pythagoreanism is littered with different and incompatible interpretations, to the point that Kahn (1974) suggested that, instead of another thesis on Pythagoreanism, it would be preferable to assess traditions with the aim of producing a good historiographical presentation. This almost fourty-year-old observation by Kahn, directs the author of this book towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological brand of work, that is, one neither exclusively devoted to the exegesis of sources such as Philolaus, Archytas or even of one of the Hellenistic Lives nor even to the theoretical approach of one of the themes that received specific contributions from Pythagoreanism, such as mathematics, cosmology, politics or theories of the soul. Instead, this monograph sets out to reconstruct the way in which the tradition established Pythagoreanism’s image, facing one of the central problems that characterizes Pythagoreanism more than other ancient philosophical movements: the drastically shifting terrain of the criticism of the sources. The goal of this historiographical approach is to embrace Pythagoreanism in its entirety, through - and not in spite of - itscomplex articulation across more than a millennium. Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 11 Note 12 Abbreviations 13 Introduction 15 1 History of criticism: from Zeller to Kingsley 21 1.1 Zeller: the skepticism of the beginnings 22 1.2 Diels: a Zellerian collection 28 1.3 Rohde: the reaction to skepticism 29 1.4 Burnet: the double teaching of acousmatics and mathematicians 31 1.5 Cornford and Guthrie: in search of unity between science and religion 33 1.6 From Delatte to De Vogel: Pythagoreanism and politics 37 1.7 Aristotle’s unique testimony and the uncertain Academic tradition 47 1.8 From Burkert to Kingsley: the third way and mysticism in the Pythagorean tradition 54 1.9 Conclusion 63 2 Pythagoreanism as a historiographical category 66 2.1 Interpreting interpretations: diachronic and synchronic dimensions 66 2.2 Pythagorean identity 69 2.3 The Pythagorean koinōnía 75 2.4 Acousmatics and mathematicians 91 2.5 Conclusion 97 3 Immortality of the soul and metempsýchosis 100 3.1 “Is it the soul?” (Xenophanes) 103 3.2 “Wiser than all” (Heraclitus and Ion of Chios) 108 3.3 “Ten or twenty human generations” (Empedocles) 111 3.4 Plato and Orphism 114 3.4.1 “Understanding the logos of their ministry” 115 3.4.2 Hierarchy of incarnations 120 3.4.3 Sôma-sêma 121 3.4.4 Pythagorean mediation 130 3.5 Herodotus, Isocrates and Egypt 135 3.6 Legends on immortality 138 3.7 A Pythagorean Democritus? 141 3.8 Aristotle and the Pythagorean myths 143 3.9 Conclusion 148 4 Numbers 151 4.1 All is number? 152 4.1.1 Three versions of the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers 152 4.1.2 Two solutions 161 4.1.3 The Philolaic solution 164 4.1.3.1 One book or three books? 165 4.1.3.2 Authenticity of Philolaus’ fragments 167 4.1.3.3 The Doric pseudo-epigraphic tradition 169 4.1.4 The Aristotelian exception (Met. A 6, 987b) 173 4.1.5 The Platonic testimony (Phlb. 16c-23c) 181 4.2 The fragments of Philolaus 186 4.2.1 Unlimited/limiting 186 4.2.2 The role of numbers in Philolaus 192 4.3 Conclusion 198 Conclusion 203 Bibliography 211 Primary sources 211 Secondary sources 214 Index of Topics 228 Index of Passages 233 Index of Names 238 The history of Pythagoreanism is littered with different and incompatible interpretations, to the point that Kahn (1974) suggested that, instead of another thesis on Pythagoreanism, it would be preferable to assess traditions with the aim of producing a good historiographical presentation. This almost fourty-year-old observation by Kahn, directs the author of this book towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological brand of work, that is, one neither exclusively devoted to the exegesis of sources such as Philolaus, Archytas or even of one of the Hellenistic Lives nor even to the theoretical approach of one of the themes that received specific contributions from Pythagoreanism, such as mathematics, cosmology, politics or theories of the soul. Instead, this monograph sets out to reconstruct the way in which the tradition established Pythagoreanism's image, facing one of the central problems that characterizes Pythagoreanism more than other ancient philosophical movements: the drastically shifting terrain of the criticism of the sources. The goal of this historiographical approach is to embrace Pythagoreanism in its entirety, through - and not in spite of - its complex articulation across more than a millennium. Main description: The history of Pythagoreanism is littered with different and incompatible interpretations. This observation directs this book towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological approach, setting out to reconstruct the way in which the tradition established Pythagoreanism's image