Forms and Transformations of Pythagorean Knowledge: Askēsis – Religion – Science

October 23, 2013 - October 25, 2013
Freie Universität Berlin

Berlin
Germany

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There are two dominant understandings of Pythagoras in the Pythagorean tradition (and research about it): Pythagoras as a “shaman” and “religious leader” on the one hand, as a “philosopher” and “scientific genius” on the other. Since F.M. Cornford’s seminal article “Mysticism and Science in the Pythagorean Tradition” (1922/1923) various attempts have been made to reconcile these understandings (e.g. Dodds, Burkert) as well as to analyze them separately (e.g. Huffman). Most recently, scholarship has tended to compartmentalize different facets of Pythagorean knowledge and in doing so has failed to provide a context in which to explore questions of their origins, development, and interde-pendency.

This conference aims to reverse the trend by addressing the connections between the different forms (practical, tech-nical, procedural, propositional, conscious, tacit knowledge, etc.) and fields within the body of Pythagorean knowledge (including ethics, metempsychosis, astronomy, medicine, arithmology, harmony, politics, and Pythagorean women). In particular, we intend to discuss how askēsis, practical training and/or exercise concerning the Pythagorean way of life, was related to more doctrinal fields of knowledge such as Pythagorean religion and science. It is, for ex-ample, a well-known fact that the doctrine of the migration of the soul exerted great influence on both the Pythagorean “rules of life” and more abstract theories about the nature of the cosmos.

Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger & Dr. Alessandro Stavru
Freie Universitaet Berlin
Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion
Email: [email protected]

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