School · 570 BCE–300 BCE
Pythagoreanism
Pythagorean communities linked a disciplined way of life with claims about number, harmony, soul, and cosmic order; their early history is difficult to separate from later testimony.
Shared questions
- How can numerical proportion, communal discipline, and inquiry into the soul disclose cosmic order?
Internal disagreements
- Whether surviving mathematical and metaphysical doctrines belong to Pythagoras himself, later communities, or hostile reports.
Key texts
- On Nature — The fragments attributed to Philolaus are the earliest Pythagorean writing whose authenticity is widely accepted.
- The Pythagorean pseudepigrapha — Texts forged in the name of Pythagoras and other early Pythagoreans from the fourth century BCE onward, which shaped how the school was read.