PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS

Pythagoras of Samos is perhaps the best known pre-Socratic philosopher and, as tradition has it, the first thinker to have called himself a “philosopher”, i.e. a lover of knowledge. His philosophy was based on mathematics (he is credited with developing the Pythagorean theorem), postulating that numbers underlie the order of the universe (which he first termed cosmos, a word meaning “ornament”) and that numerical relationships are inherent in music. Pythagoras and his students were the first to form an organised philosophical movement, initially based in Croton, Magna Graecia. The teachings of Pythagoras influenced mature Greek philosophy and were central to the thinking of Plato, the Academy and the Neoplatonists.