Mathematics, Music, and Metempsychosis: Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism

Harvard FAS

This course will introduce students to the mysterious early Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BCE), famous for teaching that the cosmos was composed of numbers and ratios, which correspond to a kind of cosmic music or "harmony of the spheres," and that souls are immortal and reincarnate (metempsychosis). Pythagoras' life and teachings are shrouded in mystery, but legends abound. He and the Pythagorean movement he inspired exerted enormous influence on ancient philosophy (including…