Similarites and Differences

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What are the similarities and differences in the major viewpoints of cosmology, pythagoreans and sophists?

-- Cristina (schnowzer5@hotmail.com), October 05, 2002

Answers

The sophists were not at all unified school. About all they shared were a desire to make money as itinerant teachers. Some, such as Gorgias, seem to have believed, as Socarates accused them of, that truth is unimportant and all that matters is to be convincing. Some, such a Hippias, were polymaths. Others, such as Protagoras, taught only a few topics in which they were expert, arguing against polymathy.

The Pythagoreans are difficult to pin down as well. Pythagoras' school broke into (at least) two camps after his death, and since we have none of his own writings (if indeed he wrote anything) it is difficult to tell which of the two later traditions is the more authentic. In general, number was revered. The essences of things were thought to be certain numerical ratios. (Note, for instance, the famous example with musical harmony.) This ran against the previous presocratic tradition of attempting to find the most fundamental single physical element.

I'm not certain what you mean by "cosmology." It is not a "school" but a topic. All of the various presocratics had a cosmology (a story of the nature of the cosmos) of one sort or another.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), October 05, 2002.


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