PYTHAGORAS

Pythagoras and numbers

BRO JOSEPH ETTOLIL

III PHILOSOPHY

To the question proposed by his predecessors regarding the ultimate nature of the observed reality, Pythagoras of Samos gave a kind of mystical answer. Deviating drastically from the material based answers of the forerunners, he made an investigation of the whole universe and reached an answer that numbers were the ultimate oneness behind every multitude and plurality inherent in the universe. Earlier, philosophers had given answers such as water, air material stuff etc. as a solution to the problem of one and many. But unlike his predecessors who gave the solution on the basis of the constitutive aspect of the plurality, Pythagoras gave a mathematico-metaphysical view. One may wonder what his basis was to regard numbers as the basis of everything. How did he conceive material objects to be constituted of numbers is a mystery. Eventhough he conceives one as a point, two as a line, three as a plane and everything to be composed of points, lines and planes, it is not at all a satisfactory answer. But, contemplating the answer of Pythagoras in the light of the modern scientific revolution would provide us a wonderful insight of the cosmos. We may not regard the created universe to be substantially made up of numbers since numbers are mathematical concepts rather than material entities. But it is indeed a well known fact that there is a mathematics underlying every creature and activities. There are ‘numbers’ behind everything even if we are aware of it or not. The petals of a flower are arranged in its stem in a beautiful manner. The aesthetic beauty of the arrangement resides in certain mathematical principles. The distribution of the branches of a coconut tree is done in such a wonderful manner that it is impossible to arrange it in some other way so as to accommodate an additional branch. It is the mathematics that works behind these instances makes them attain these qualities. In both the cases the principle applied is the Fibonacci sequence. Fibonacci sequence proceeds as 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,35 etc. Each entry in the sequence is the sum total of the last two entries and the sequence begins with 0 and 1. It is said that the human body looks more beautiful when it is structured in the ‘Golden ratio’. Likewise we could see that the whole cosmos is pervaded by numbers and mathematical rules. There is a mathematics behind motion (whether be 1-D, 2-D, 3-D or angular motion), force, creation and annihilation, seasonal changes etc. Even music is mathematical. With the emergence of electronics and its application to the various fields of science, especially IT, we have come to know that everything below the sun shall be expressed with 0’s and 1’s. Thus, in a mystical perception we could regard everything in this world to be immersed in numbers. It may be because of such a mystical outlook of the cosmos that Pythagoras regarded numbers as the basis of everything. Even though we may not regard numbers as the material cause of this universe, owing to the developments in the field of science, we may regard numbers to be at the bottom of everything in such a manner.