Information AboutPhilolaus |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PHILOLAUS | |
| 470 bc births | |
| 385 bc deaths | |
| presocratic philosophers | |
| ancient greek mathematicians | |
| ancient greek physicists | |
| magna graecia | |
| pythagoreans | |
|
A classic Philologist , August Boeckh ( 1785 – 1867 ) places his life between the 70th and 95th Olympiad s ( 496 BC – 396 BC ). 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 was born in Croton (according to Diogenes Laërtius ), Tarentum , or Heraclea . He lived around 475 BC and was in Croton during the persecution of the Pythagorean s. He was said to have been intimate with Democritus, and was probably one of his teachers. He was an immediate pupil and transcriber of Pythagoras and after the death of his teacher great dissensions prevailed in the cities of lower Italy . According to some accounts, Philolaus, obliged to flee, took refuge first in Lucania and then at Thebes , where he had as pupils Simmias and Cebes ( Crito ), who, being young men, 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 BC – 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 dramatically. Such a theory about the Solar System quite well explained the movement of the Sun and the differing lengths of Day s through the Year . It is not known how accurate it was. 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 29 1/2 days, the Lunar Year of 354, and the Solar Year of 365 1/2 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 fyseos'' (''About the nature''). Speusipus, the Plato's successor at the Academy summarized Philolaus's work. 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 Number s, 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 Solid s is attributed to Pythagoras by Eudemus , and Empedocles is stated to have been the first who maintained that there are four Classical Element s. 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 . 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. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|