Why Pythagoras Called Himself a Philosopher
Pythagoras was the first who called himself a philosopher; a word which heretofore had not been an appellation but a description. When Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, “A philosopher”.
He likens the entrance of men into the present life to the progression of a crowd to some public spectacle. For there men of every description assemble with different views. One hastens to sell his wares for the sake of money and gain; another exhibits his bodily strength for renown; but there is also a third class of men, and those the most liberal, who assemble to observe the landscape, the beautiful works of art, the specimens of valor, and the customary literary productions.
Thus also in the present life, men of manifold pursuits collect together in one and the same place. For some are influenced by the desire of riches and luxury; others by the love of power and dominion; and others are possessed with an insane ambition for glory. But the most pure and unadulterated character, is that of the man who gives himself to the contemplation of the most beautiful things, and whom it is proper to call a philosopher.
What is Philosophy
The survey of all heaven, and of the stars that revolve in it, is indeed beautiful, when one considers the order of them. For they derive this beauty and order by the participation of the first and the intelligible essence. But that first essence is the nature of number and reason, i.e. productive principles, which pervades through all things, and according to which all these celestial bodies are elegantly arranged and fitly adorned. Wisdom is a science which is conversant with the first beautiful objects, and these divine, undecaying, and possessing an invariable sameness of subsistence; by the participation of which other things also are beautiful. Philosophy is the appetition of a thing of this kind. The attention to erudition is likewise beautiful, which Pythagoras extended, in order to effect the correction of mankind.
References:
- “Iamblichus’ Life Of Pythagoras”. Internet Archive. January 01, 1970. Accessed March 31, 2018. https://archive.org/details/Taylor1818IamblichusLifeOfPythagoras.
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