Pythagoreanism - Two Schools

Two Schools

Arguably Pythagoras' most important contribution to society was the Pythagorean Theorem. This states that in any right triangle with side lengths, and, where the latter is the length of the hypotenuse, . According to tradition, Pythagoreanism developed at some point into two separate schools of thought, the mathēmatikoi Μαθηματικοι ("learners") and the akousmatikoi Ακουσματικοι, ("listeners"). The mathēmatikoi were supposed to have extended and developed the more mathematical and scientific work begun by Pythagoras, while the akousmatikoi focused on the more religious and ritualistic aspects of his teachings. The akousmatikoi claimed that the mathēmatikoi were not genuinely Pythagorean, but followers of the "renegade" Pythagorean Hippasus. The mathēmatikoi, on the other hand, allowed that the akousmatikoi were Pythagorean, but felt that their own group was more representative of Pythagoras.

Read more about this topic:  Pythagoreanism

Famous quotes containing the word schools:

    I lay my eternal curse on whomsoever shall now or at any time hereafter make schoolbooks of my works and make me hated as Shakespeare is hated. My plays were not designed as instruments of torture. All the schools that lust after them get this answer, and will never get any other.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Good schools are schools for the development of the whole child. They seek to help children develop to their maximum their social powers and their intellectual powers, their emotional capacities, their physical powers.
    James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)