Philolaus of Tarentum

Philolaus was a Greek Pythagorean and Pre-Socratic philosopher. It was a number of reports tat indicate that Philolaus was born some time before 440 BC.

Pythagoras is said to have retired to Metapontum toward the end of his life and to have died there about 500 BC. Tradition holds that he left no written works, but his ideas were carried on by a large number of eager disciples. Philolaus of Tarentum is one of his disciples is said to have written the account of Pythagoreanism.

Philolaus had studied with some of the expelled Pythagoreans, and he was interested in number magic and mysticism. Philolaus is generally credited with being the first Pythagorean to set the school’s teachings down in writing,

He put forward a theory of metaphysics that posited two fundamental principles, the unlimited and the limiting, which were the source of everything else.

Philolaus considers harmony as a necessary for creation of the cosmos. Otherwise only a disorderly and incoherently woven whole would arise, not the cosmos.

He is said to have thought in Thebes after leaving Italy when the Pythagorean school in Croton was disbanded. He may have returned to Tarentum to teach in his old age.
Philolaus of Tarentum