PHILOSOPHER

Pythagoras

570 BC - 495 BC

Photo of Pythagoras

Icon of person Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας; c. 570 – c. 495 BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but most agree that he travelled to Croton in southern Italy around 530 BC, where he founded a school in which initiates were allegedly sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle. In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with mathematical and scientific discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five regular solids, the theory of proportions, the sphericity of the Earth, the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus, and the division of the globe into five climatic zones. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Pythagoras is the 5th most popular philosopher, the 5th most popular biography from Greece and the 4th most popular Greek Philosopher.

Pythagoras is most famous for the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Pythagoras by language

Loading...

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Pythagoras ranks 5 out of 1,267Before him are Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and Gautama Buddha. After him are Confucius, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Avicenna, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 570 BC, Pythagoras ranks 1After him are Xenophanes, Anacreon, Theognis of Megara, and Hystaspes. Among people deceased in 495 BC, Pythagoras ranks 1After him are Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and Hystaspes.

Others Born in 570 BC

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 495 BC

Go to all Rankings

In Greece

Among people born in Greece, Pythagoras ranks 5 out of 1,024Before him are Aristotle (-384), Plato (-427), Socrates (-470), and Alexander the Great (-356). After him are Homer (-800), Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881), Hippocrates (-460), Sophocles (-497), Pericles (-494), Democritus (-460), and Epicurus (-341).

Among PHILOSOPHERS In Greece

Among philosophers born in Greece, Pythagoras ranks 4Before him are Aristotle (-384), Plato (-427), and Socrates (-470). After him are Democritus (-460), Epicurus (-341), Plutarch (46), Protagoras (-486), Gorgias (-483), Theophrastus (-371), Antisthenes (-445), and Pyrrho (-365).