Philosophical models of cosmos of Pythagoras and Philolaus: from Antiquity until the beginning of Modern Age

Abstract

This article determines the fundamental principles of the models of the Cosmos of Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 500 BC) and Philolaus of Croton (c. 470 – c. 388 BC). The perception of Cosmos as “beauty” and “harmony” – one of the basic characteristics of Pythagorean approach towards cognition of the world; it “interweaves” with the rational perception of reality. The harmony of beauty is transformed into the harmony of numerical relations. The achievements of Pythagoreans, subsequently become one of the foundations of Plato's astronomical texts, who describes cosmology as exact scientific discipline. Nicolaus Copernicus resorts to Philolaus as his major predecessor. This article is first to analyze the symbolic elements of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos from the perspective of modern scientific knowledge. Based on the conducted analysis, the author advances a hypothesis on the noematic nature of the elements of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos, as well as indicates the significance of transposing the methods of practical geometry onto the theoretical fields of “celestial” space, independent from the direct measurements. The article describes the key principles of the model of the universe of Pythagoras of Samos and Philolaus of Croton; discusses reconstruction of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos by Ivan Nikolaevich Veselovsky and Sergey Viktorovich Zhitomirsky. Analysis is conducted on the continuity of the principles of the models of Cosmos of Philolaus and Nicolaus Copernicus.