Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

By Charles H. Kahn

Book Overview

A fascinating portrait of the Pythagorean tradition, including a substantial account of the Neo-Pythagorean revival, and ending with Johannes Kepler on the threshold of modernism. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872205754
• ISBN13: 9780872205758
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on Pythagoreanism which is well beyond the novice level

Myself, owning absolutely every book ever written on Pythagoras and Platonism & Neoplatonism, I am extremely familiar with the waste-of-paper novice encounters of pseudo-intellectuals who are clueless into the Monistic (emanationistic, or proodos in Greek) system of the Pythagoreans. Fantastically, this book is not to be counted among such novice-level, or novice-authored texts. Charles Kahn, the author has composed a pithy and intelligent work worth purchase and reading. Life is too short to read trash, of which there is much in excess. This book is only one of 3 books on Pythagoreanism which intelligent speaks of and grasps the logic and methodology behind the Platonic epistrophe (synthesis, assimilation) in which comprises the Platonic system of "Oneing" or reunification of the spirit with the Agathon (the One, the Absolute). This book isn't for novice minds, however is it both intelligently written by an author with a broad scopus of knowledge about and upon the Pythagorean Emanationist metaphysical model of both the cosmos noetos and the cosmos aesthetos which the Platonists used as abductive grounds for insight into the nous and the Absolute. This book is a "must buy".

Fascinating Book

Pythagoras (Pitagoras) is a fascinating scholar of antiquities. He lived in southern Italy before the better know Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Although nothing survives of his writings, the foot prints of his thoughts appear throughout the world of ideas. His contributions go beyond the Pythagorean geometric formulas and the codification of the musical octave. In fact, many Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas have been from time to time attributed to him. Pre-Christian cults in ancient Rome observed his abstract ideas of reincarnation and numerology in their ritual. Charles H Kahn ties together the different fragment of knowledge about Pythagoras and produces a surprisingly readable 170 page text which will be of interest to all exploring the foundations of western philosophy.

The best contemproary orthodox classicist work on Pythagoras

Kahn, a scholar's scholar, is a recognized authority on early Greek thought. Anyone studying the Presocratics must read his work. Because there are no extent texts, speculation on Pythagoras rests on ancient commentary and modern conjecture. Contemporary philosophy professors have attempted to debunk the philosphical and mathematical geuius of Pythagoras. However, Kahn's thoughtful and cautious work questions this standard dismissal.

The best short scholarly account of Pythagoreanism

Charles H. Kahn's account of the Pythagorean philosophical tradtion, although less than 200 pages long, is well worth reading as what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. In a concise, but intelligent, summary, Kahn traces Pythagoreanism from its semi-legendary founder through to such early modern scientists as Copernicus and Kepler. As a young academic who specialises in the Pythagorean tradition I can recommend this work wholeheartedly to scholars, but as a Latinist I must say I was disapointed by Kahn's treatment (or lack of) of this strand of Western philosophy in late Roman and Medieval thought. But, this is still the best up to date history of Pythagoreanism available in the English language.