2. PYTHAGORAS
ythagoras, one of the most famous and controversial ancient Greek philosophers,
lived from ca. 570 to ca. 490 BCE. He spent his early years on the island of Samos,
off the coast of modern Turkey. At the age of forty, however, he emigrated to the
city of Croton in southern Italy and most of his philosophical activity occurred
there. Pythagoras wrote nothing, nor were there any detailed accounts of his
thought written by contemporaries. By the first centuries BCE, moreover, it became
fashionable to present Pythagoras in a largely unhistorical fashion as a semi-divine
figure, who originated all that was true in the Greek philosophical tradition,
including many of Plato's and Aristotle's mature ideas
4. PYYTHAGORAS’S BIRTH
Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure
mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the
development of mathematics yet we know relatively little about his
mathematical achievements. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians,
where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have
nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half
religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which
certainly means that today Pythagoras is a mysterious figure.
7. FAMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS
he Pythagorean Theorem was one of the earliest theorems known to
ancient civilizations. This famous theorem is named for the Greek
mathematician and philosopher, Pythagoras. Pythagoras founded the
Pythagorean School of Mathematics in Cortona, a Greek seaport in
Southern Italy. He is credited with many contributions to
mathematics although some of them may have actually been the work
of his students.
