Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History [Paperback]

Charles H. Kahn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0872205754 | ISBN-13: 978-0872205758 | Publication Date: September 1, 2001

A fascinating portrait of the Pythagorean tradition, including a substantial account of the Neo-Pythagorean revival, and ending with Johannes Kepler on the threshold of modernism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a comprehensive, extremely sensible and readable account of a decisive strand in Western intellectual history." --Walter Burkert

About the Author

Charles Kahn is Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872205754
• ISBN-13: 978-0872205758
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #824,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best short scholarly account of Pythagoreanism, March 28, 2005

By 

L. J. McKinnon "Christian Platonist" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History (Hardcover)

Charles H. Kahn's account of the Pythagorean philosophical tradtion, although less than 200 pages long, is well worth reading as what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. In a concise, but intelligent, summary, Kahn traces Pythagoreanism from its semi-legendary founder through to such early modern scientists as Copernicus and Kepler. As a young academic who specialises in the Pythagorean tradition I can recommend this work wholeheartedly to scholars, but as a Latinist I must say I was disapointed by Kahn's treatment (or lack of) of this strand of Western philosophy in late Roman and Medieval thought. But, this is still the best up to date history of Pythagoreanism available in the English language.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book, March 14, 2008

By 

ImageMD (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History (Paperback)

Pythagoras (Pitagoras) is a fascinating scholar of antiquities. He lived in southern Italy before the better know Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Although nothing survives of his writings, the foot prints of his thoughts appear throughout the world of ideas. His contributions go beyond the Pythagorean geometric formulas and the codification of the musical octave. In fact, many Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas have been from time to time attributed to him. Pre-Christian cults in ancient Rome observed his abstract ideas of reincarnation and numerology in their ritual.

Charles H Kahn ties together the different fragment of knowledge about Pythagoras and produces a surprisingly readable 170 page text which will be of interest to all exploring the foundations of western philosophy.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on Pythagoreanism which is well beyond the novice level, September 20, 2009

By 

Denise Anderson (lexington, Ky.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History (Paperback)

Myself, owning absolutely every book ever written on Pythagoras and Platonism & Neoplatonism, I am extremely familiar with the waste-of-paper novice encounters of pseudo-intellectuals who are clueless into the Monistic (emanationistic, or proodos in Greek) system of the Pythagoreans.

Fantastically, this book is not to be counted among such novice-level, or novice-authored texts. Charles Kahn, the author has composed a pithy and intelligent work worth purchase and reading. Life is too short to read trash, of which there is much in excess.

This book is only one of 3 books on Pythagoreanism which intelligent speaks of and grasps the logic and methodology behind the Platonic epistrophe (synthesis, assimilation) in which comprises the Platonic system of "Oneing" or reunification of the spirit with the Agathon (the One, the Absolute).

This book isn't for novice minds, however is it both intelligently written by an author with a broad scopus of knowledge about and upon the Pythagorean Emanationist metaphysical model of both the cosmos noetos and the cosmos aesthetos which the Platonists used as abductive grounds for insight into the nous and the Absolute. This book is a "must buy".