mr shane masters
Pythagoras and Parmenides on the One and the Many
Pythagoras and Parmenides were two of the most important pre Socrates philosophers to come
Out of Greece, Pythagoras actually coined the term Philiosphisa (love of wisdom) they
Influenced the thoughts of some of the greatest philosophers of all time such as Plato and
Aristotle. They put forward the theory of the one and the many a theory that which was the
Search for something unified and permanent that persists through chaos and change.
However both men and their subsequent school of thought had differing views on the subject.
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans ( his school of followers) answered the question by means of form (recipe, design, order, Structure).Pythagoras was motivated by both science and
Religion but religion was his Primary motivation for his work. It was Pythagoras who
‘Introduced into Greek Philosophical (As opposed to mythographic) speculation the idea of
The immortality of the soul’1 He saw Philosophy as a means of salvation. That the soul purifies itself through contemplation of
The universe. He believed in Metempsychosis (After death soul passes to another living
Being.)He himself believed he had lived several lives and held some memories of them, in
Turn he believed that all animals had souls and so abstained from eating meat and adored any
Abuse towards animals.
His Idea Of metempsychosis influenced even modern day writers such as James Joyce.
2 ‘The book, fallen, sprawled against the bulge of the orange keyed chamber pot.
- Show here, she said. I put a mark in it. There’s a word I wanted to ask you….
- Met him what? He asked….
He leaned downwards and read near her polished thumbnail
- Metempsychosis?
- Yes, Who’s he when he’s at home?
Metempsychosis, he said, frowning. It’s Greek: from the Greek. That means the transmigration of souls.
- O, rocks! She said. Tell us in plain words.
“Unusual polysyllables of foreign origin she interpreted phonetically or
Pythagoras and Parmenides were two of the most important pre Socrates philosophers to come
Out of Greece, Pythagoras actually coined the term Philiosphisa (love of wisdom) they
Influenced the thoughts of some of the greatest philosophers of all time such as Plato and
Aristotle. They put forward the theory of the one and the many a theory that which was the
Search for something unified and permanent that persists through chaos and change.
However both men and their subsequent school of thought had differing views on the subject.
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans ( his school of followers) answered the question by means of form (recipe, design, order, Structure).Pythagoras was motivated by both science and
Religion but religion was his Primary motivation for his work. It was Pythagoras who
‘Introduced into Greek Philosophical (As opposed to mythographic) speculation the idea of
The immortality of the soul’1 He saw Philosophy as a means of salvation. That the soul purifies itself through contemplation of
The universe. He believed in Metempsychosis (After death soul passes to another living
Being.)He himself believed he had lived several lives and held some memories of them, in
Turn he believed that all animals had souls and so abstained from eating meat and adored any
Abuse towards animals.
His Idea Of metempsychosis influenced even modern day writers such as James Joyce.
2 ‘The book, fallen, sprawled against the bulge of the orange keyed chamber pot.
- Show here, she said. I put a mark in it. There’s a word I wanted to ask you….
- Met him what? He asked….
He leaned downwards and read near her polished thumbnail
- Metempsychosis?
- Yes, Who’s he when he’s at home?
Metempsychosis, he said, frowning. It’s Greek: from the Greek. That means the transmigration of souls.
- O, rocks! She said. Tell us in plain words.
“Unusual polysyllables of foreign origin she interpreted phonetically or
Bibliography: A History of Western Philosophy I, Ralph McInerney Chapter 3 James Joyce Ulysses 1922 Ithaca, Calypso Plato and Parmenides: Parmenides ' Way of Truth and Plato 's Parmenides Francis Mc Donald Cornford 1939 Pythagoras in the Renaissance, Christopher S. Celenza 1999, 682 Fragment B 7.1-8.2