The Pythagorean Theory of Everything

   As a western, Christian, Baylor student, reincarnation is one of the most foreign belief systems I could encounter. For this reason I find the Pythagorean variant to be both interesting and stimulating. The process of investigating and interrogating the ideas has led me into an arena of thought that is unfamiliar to me. To begin, a look at how it works

From one point of view, it has much in common with Anaximander's "boundless" arche. The soul is immortal, and upon the death of a material form, the soul takes another physical form. This process is repeated until the soul has taken the form of every life form, and then the cycle begins again. While these mechanics are certainly interesting to take apart, dissect, and then reassemble, what I find far more thought provoking are the implications of this view.

To begin with, the idea that all living things possess a common soul is massive. There is an inherent equality between all living things, and therefore a level of respect owed to all life. This duty of respect is intuitively generated when one takes even a rudimentary understanding of something like the Categorical Imperative or the Golden Rule and applies the idea that all life is, on some level, related. Even the Pythagorean emphasis on the preeminence of numbers and numerical patterns is tied to this implication. If all life really were related, we would expect generalizable patterns and similarities to be observed. Though the Pythagorean understanding and application of this idea is metaphysical, it resembles strongly the arguments of modern science. From the Normal distribution to Newtonian laws of physics, there are underlying assumptions that accept patterns as a part of the world we live in and expect observations to inform theories that are generalizable.

I am continually amazed that the ancients could produce ideas that tap into truths that are central to modern life. In this, I am confronted with some of the very biases and assumptions that I am seeking to root out by pursuing philosophy in the first place.