Philolaus

Philolaus
Philolaus
	Medieval woodcut byFranchino Gaffurio,depictingPythagorasand Philolaus conducting musical investigations
Born	c.470 BC
Died	c.385 BC
Era	Pre-Socratic philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Pythagoreanism
Main interests	Metaphysics; Astronomy;
Notable ideas	Central Fire; Counter-Earth; discountingGeocentrism;

Philolaus(/ˌfɪləˈleɪəs/;Ancient Greek: $Φιλόλαος$ ,Philólaos;c. 470– c. 385 BC)^[1]^[a] was a GreekPythagoreanandpre-Socraticphilosopher. He was born in a Greek colony in Italy and migrated to Greece. Philolaus has been called one of three most prominent figures in the Pythagorean tradition and the most outstanding figure in the Pythagorean school.Pythagorasdeveloped a school of philosophy that was dominated by both mathematics and mysticism. Most of what is known today about the Pythagorean astronomical system is derived from Philolaus's views. He may have been the first to write about Pythagorean doctrine. According toBöckh (1819),who citesNicomachus,Philolaus was the successor of Pythagoras.^[3]

He argued that at the foundation of everything is the part played by the limiting andlimitless,which combine in a harmony. With his assertions that the Earth was not the center of the universe (geocentrism), he is credited with the earliest known discussion of concepts in the development ofheliocentrism,the theory that theEarthis not the center of theUniverse,but rather that the Sun is. Philolaus discussed aCentral Fireas the center of the universe and that spheres (including the Sun) revolved around it.

Biography

Various reports give the birthplace of Philolaus as eitherCroton,^[4]Tarentum,^[5]orMetapontum^[6]—all part ofMagna Graecia(the name of the coastal areas ofSouthern Italyon theTarentine Gulfthat werecolonizedextensively byGreeksettlers). It is most likely that he came from Croton.^[7]^[8]He migrated toGreece,perhaps while fleeing the second burning of the Pythagorean meeting-place around 454 BC.^[9]

According toPlato'sPhaedo,he was the instructor ofSimmiasandCebesatThebes,around the time thePhaedotakes place, in 399 BC.^[10]That would make him a contemporary ofSocrates,and would agree with the statement that Philolaus andDemocrituswere contemporaries.^[11]

The writings of much later writers are the sources of further reports about his life. They are scattered and of dubious value in reconstructing his life. Apparently, he lived for some time atHeraclea,where he was the pupil ofAresas,or (asPlutarchcalls him) Arcesus.^[12]Diogenes Laërtiusis the only authority for the claim that shortly after the death of Socrates, Plato traveled to Italy where he met with Philolaus andEurytus.^[13]The pupils of Philolaus were said to have includedXenophilus,Phanto,Echecrates,Diocles,andPolymnastus.^[14]

As to his death, Diogenes Laërtius reports a dubious story that Philolaus was put to death at Croton on account of being suspected of wanting to be the tyrant;^[b] a story which Diogenes Laërtius even chose to put into verse.^[16]

Writings

Discussion of Philolaus in a book by Charles Peter Mason (1870)

Pythagoras and his earliest successors do not appear to have committed any of their doctrines to writing. According to Porphyrius (Vit. Pyth. p. 40)LysisandArchippuscollected in a written form some of the principal Pythagorean doctrines, which were handed down as heirlooms in their families, under strict injunctions that they should not be made public. But amid the different and inconsistent accounts of the matter, the first publication of the Pythagorean doctrines is pretty uniformly attributed to Philolaus.^[17]

In one source,Diogenes Laërtiusspeaks of Philolaus composing one book,^[18]but elsewhere he speaks of three books,^[19]as doAulus GelliusandIamblichus.It might have been one treatise divided into three books. Plato is said to have procured a copy of his book. Later, it was claimed that Plato composed much of hisTimaeusbased upon the book by Philolaus.^[20]

One of the works of Philolaus was calledOn Nature.^[18]It seems to be the same work thatStobaeuscallsOn the Worldand from which he has preserved a series of passages.^[21]Other writers refer to a work entitledBacchae,which may have been another name for the same work, and which may originate fromArignote.However, it has been mentioned thatProclusdescribes theBacchaeas a book for teaching theology by means of mathematics.^[7]It appears, in fact, from this, as well as from the extant fragments, that the first book of the work contained a general account of the origin and arrangement of the universe. The second book appears to have been an exposition of the nature of numbers, which in the Pythagorean theory are the essence and source of all things.^[17]

He composed a work on the Pythagorean philosophy in three books, which Plato is said to have procured at the cost of 100minaethroughDion of Syracuse,who purchased it from Philolaus, who was at the time in deep poverty.^[17]Other versions of the story represent Plato as purchasing it himself from Philolaus or his relatives when in Sicily.^[22]Out of the materials which he derived from these books Plato is said to have composed hisTimaeus.But in the age of Plato the leading features of the Pythagorean doctrines had long ceased to be a secret; and if Philolaus taught the Pythagorean doctrines atThebes,he was hardly likely to feel much reluctance in publishing them; and amid the conflicting and improbable accounts preserved in the authorities above referred to, little more can be regarded as trustworthy, except that Philolaus was the first who published a book on the Pythagorean doctrines, and that Plato read and made use of it.^[23] Historians from theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,ChapterPhilolaus' Book: Genuine Fragments and Testimonia,noted the following:^[7]

It is implied that these books were not by Philolaus himself, and it seems likely that the statement refers to three spurious works assigned to Pythagoras at D.L. VIII 6 (Burkert 1972a, 224–5). The story of Plato's purchase of these books from Philolaus was probably invented to authenticate the three forged treatises of Pythagoras. Burkert's arguments (1972a, 238–277), supported by further study (Huffman 1993), have led to a consensus that some 11 fragments are genuine (Frs. 1–6, 6a, 7, 13, 16 and 17 in the numbering of Huffman 1993) and derive from Philolaus' book On Nature (Barnes 1982; Kahn 1993 and 2001; Kirk, Raven and Schofield 1983; Nussbaum 1979; Zhmud 1997). Fragments 1, 6a and 13 are identified as coming from the book On Nature by ancient sources. Stobaeus cites fragments 2 and 4–7 as coming from a work On the Cosmos, but this appears to be an alternate title for On Nature, which probably arose because the chapter heading in Stobaeus under which the fragments are cited is 'On the Cosmos.'

Philosophy

A page fromTheorica Musicae(1492)^[24]

Philolaus argued at the foundation of everything is the part played by the ideas of limit and the unlimited. One of the first declarations in the work of Philolaus was that all things in the universe result from a combination of the unlimited and the limiting;^[25]for if all things had been unlimited, nothing could have been the object of knowledge.^[26]Limiters and unlimiteds are combined in a harmony (harmonia):

This is the state of affairs about nature and harmony. The essence of things is eternal; it is a unique and divine nature, the knowledge of which does not belong to Man. Still it would not be possible that any of the things that are, and are known by us, should arrive to our knowledge, if this essence was not the internal foundation of the principles of which the world was founded, that is, of the limiting and unlimited elements. Now since these principles are not mutually similar, neither of similar nature, it would be impossible that the order of the world should have been formed by them, unless the harmony intervened [...].
— Philolaus, Fragment DK 44B 6a.

Robert Scoon explained Philolaus' universe in 1922:^[27]

Philolaus is trying to show how the ordered universe that we know came into its present condition. It arose, he says, by the action of harmony on a basic substance, which we do not know but must infer. This substance consisted of different primary elements, and harmony fitted these together in such a way that nature $φύσις$ turns out to be an ordered world $κόσμος$ .

The book by Philolaus begins with the following:^[7]

Nature (physis) in the world-order (cosmos) was fitted together out of things which are unlimited and out of things which are limiting, both the world-order as a whole and everything in it.

According to Stobaeus, Philolaus did away with the ideas of fixed direction in space and developed one of the first non-geocentric views of the universe and in his new way of thinking, the universe revolved around ahypothetical astronomical objecthe called theCentral Fire.

Philolaus says that there is fire in the middle at the centre [...] and again more fire at the highest point and surrounding everything. By nature the middle is first, and around it dance ten divine bodies—the sky, the planets, then the sun, next the moon, next the earth, next thecounterearth,and after all of them the fire of the hearth which holds position at the centre. The highest part of the surrounding, where the elements are found in their purity, he calls Olympus; the regions beneath the orbit of Olympus, where are the five planets with the sun and the moon, he calls the world; the part under them, being beneath the moon and around the earth, in which are found generation and change, he calls the sky.
— Stobaeus,i. 22. 1d

In Philolaus's system a sphere of the fixedstars,the fiveplanets,theSun,Moon,and Earth, all moved around a Central Fire. According toAristotle,writing inMetaphysics,Philolaus added a tenth unseen body, he calledCounter-Earth,as without it there would be only nine revolving bodies, and the Pythagoreannumber theoryrequired a tenth. However, Greek scholar George Burch asserts his belief that Aristotle was lampooning Philolaus's addition.

The system that Philolaus described predated the idea of spheres by hundreds of years, however.^[28]Nearly two-thousand years later,Nicolaus Copernicuswould mention inDe revolutionibusthat Philolaus already knew about the Earth's revolution around a central fire.

It has been pointed out, however, that Stobaeus betrays a tendency to confound the dogmas of the early Ionian philosophers, and in his accounts, he occasionally mixes up Platonism with Pythagoreanism.^[29]

Notes

^ "The most likely date for Philolaus' birth would then appear to be around 470, although he could have been born as early as 480 or as late as 440. He appears to have lived into the 380s and at the very least until 399."^[2]
^ "The story at D.L. 84 that Philolaus was killed because he was thought to be aiming at a tyranny is clearly a confusion withDion,who is mentioned in the context, and did have such a death. "^[15]

References

^Huffman, Carl (2020)."Philolaus".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Huffman, C.A.(1993).Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and presocratic.Cambridge University Press. pp.5–6.
^Böckh, August(1819).Philolaos des Pythagoreers Lehren nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes.In der Vossischen Buchhandlung. p.14– via archive.org.Pythagoras Lehren nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes.
^Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,p. 148
^Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,p. 267; Diogenes Laërtius, viii, p. 46
^Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,pp. 266–67
^^a ^b ^c ^dCarl Huffman."Philolaus".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Carl A. Huffman, (1993)Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and Presocratic,p. 6. Cambridge University Press
^Not to be confused with the first burning of the meeting place, in the lifetime ofPythagoras,c. 509 BC
^Plato,Phaedo,61DE
^Apollodorus ap. Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 38
^Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica;comp. Plutarch,de Gen. Socr.13, although the account given by Plutarch involves great inaccuracies
^Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 6
^Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 46
^ Huffman, Carl A. (1993).Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and presocratic.Cambridge University Press. p. 6.
^Diogenes Laërtius, iii. p. 84; cf. Suda,Philolaus
^^a ^b ^cCharles Peter Mason(1870). "Philolaus". InSmith, William(ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
^^a ^bDiogenes Laërtius, viii. 85
^Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 9, viii. 15
^Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 15, 55, 84, 85, iii. 9;
Aulus Gellius, iii. 17;
Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica;
Tzetzes,Chiliad,x. 792, xi. 38
^DK 44 B 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
^Diog. Laert. viii. 15, 55, 84, 85, iii. 9;
A. Gellius, iV. iii. 17;
Iamblichus, Vit. Fyth. 31. p. 172;
Tzetzes, Chiliad, x. 792, &c. xi. 38, &c.
^Böckh, p. 22.
^Gaffurius, Franchinus (1492).Theorica musicae.
^Fragment DK 44B 1
^Fragment DK 44B 3
^Scoon, Robert (1922).Philolaus, Fragment 6, Diels. Stobaeus i. 21. 460.Classical Philology.
^Burch, George Bosworth.The Counter-Earth Archived2013-10-29 at theWayback Machine.Osirus, vol. 11. Saint Catherines Press, 1954. p. 267-294
^One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Stobaeus, Joannes".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Other sources

Laërtius, Diogenes(1925)."Pythagoreans: Philolaus".Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.Vol. 2:8. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.

External links

Quotations related toPhilolausat Wikiquote
Works by or aboutPhilolausatWikisource
Media related toPhilolausat Wikimedia Commons
Huffman, Carl."Philolaus".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Philolaus".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 21 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 414.

[3] "The most likely date for Philolaus' birth would then appear to be around 470, although he could have been born as early as 480 or as late as 440. He appears to have lived into the 380s and at the very least until 399."^[2]

[17] "The story at D.L. 84 that Philolaus was killed because he was thought to be aiming at a tyranny is clearly a confusion withDion,who is mentioned in the context, and did have such a death. "^[15]

[1] Huffman, Carl (2020)."Philolaus".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

[2] Huffman, C.A.(1993).Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and presocratic.Cambridge University Press. pp.5–6.

[4] Böckh, August(1819).Philolaos des Pythagoreers Lehren nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes.In der Vossischen Buchhandlung. p.14– via archive.org.Pythagoras Lehren nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes.

[5] Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,p. 148

[6] Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,p. 267; Diogenes Laërtius, viii, p. 46

[7] Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica,pp. 266–67

[SEPPhilolaus-8] Carl Huffman."Philolaus".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

[9] Carl A. Huffman, (1993)Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and Presocratic,p. 6. Cambridge University Press

[10] Not to be confused with the first burning of the meeting place, in the lifetime ofPythagoras,c. 509 BC

[11] Plato,Phaedo,61DE

[12] Apollodorus ap. Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 38

[13] Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica;comp. Plutarch,de Gen. Socr.13, although the account given by Plutarch involves great inaccuracies

[14] Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 6

[15] Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 46

[16] Huffman, Carl A. (1993).Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and presocratic.Cambridge University Press. p. 6.

[18] Diogenes Laërtius, iii. p. 84; cf. Suda,Philolaus

[Charles_Peter_Mason-19] Charles Peter Mason(1870). "Philolaus". InSmith, William(ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

[Diogenes_Laërtius,_viii._85-20] Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 85

[21] Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 9, viii. 15

[22] Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 15, 55, 84, 85, iii. 9;
Aulus Gellius, iii. 17;
Iamblichus,Vita Pythagorica;
Tzetzes,Chiliad,x. 792, xi. 38

[23] DK 44 B 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

[24] Diog. Laert. viii. 15, 55, 84, 85, iii. 9;
A. Gellius, iV. iii. 17;
Iamblichus, Vit. Fyth. 31. p. 172;
Tzetzes, Chiliad, x. 792, &c. xi. 38, &c.

[25] Böckh, p. 22.

[26] Gaffurius, Franchinus (1492).Theorica musicae.

[27] Fragment DK 44B 1

[28] Fragment DK 44B 3

[29] Scoon, Robert (1922).Philolaus, Fragment 6, Diels. Stobaeus i. 21. 460.Classical Philology.

[Burch-30] Burch, George Bosworth.The Counter-Earth Archived2013-10-29 at theWayback Machine.Osirus, vol. 11. Saint Catherines Press, 1954. p. 267-294

[31] One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Stobaeus, Joannes".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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