Philolaus

Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001

Philolaus
-a Pythagorean
-born in Croton circa 470 B.C.
-left Croton when the Pythagorean school was destroyed and went to mainland Greece
-believed that the universe existed from a harmonizing of limitless and limiting things
-believed all things have a number
-Geometry was the greatest science and gave the best knowledge because it elevates the mind and purifies it, releasing it from perception
-believed that there was fire in the middle at the center (the hearth of the universe/house of Zeus)
"The old theologians and prophets also testify that the soul has been yoked to the body as a punishment and that it is buried in it as though in a tomb" (Barnes, 181).