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125-475: Brithdir Mawr is an intentional community in Pembrokeshire , South Wales. The community is based on an 80 acres (32 ha) farm. It is currently home to 10 adults and 7 children who live in individual family flats around the farmyard. The land is farmed organically (although not certified, partly due to cost, mostly due to the belief that chemical farmers should pay for certification to show their food

250-563: A Sonchis of Sais ). According to the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria ( c.  150  – c.  215  AD), "Pythagoras was a disciple of Sonchis, an Egyptian archprophet, as well as a Plato of Sechnuphis ." Some ancient writers claimed that Pythagoras learned geometry and the doctrine of metempsychosis from the Egyptians. Other ancient writers, however, claimed that Pythagoras had learned these teachings from

375-569: A pseudepigraphal poem. Empedocles , who lived in Magna Graecia shortly after Pythagoras and Parmenides, knew that the earth was spherical. By the end of the fifth century BC, this fact was universally accepted among Greek intellectuals. The identity of the morning star and evening star was known to the Babylonians over a thousand years earlier. Sizeable Pythagorean communities existed in Magna Graecia, Phlius , and Thebes during

500-515: A Communist Church before becoming a Unitarian minister. The Simon Community in London is an example of social cooperation, made to ease homelessness within London. It provides food and religion and is staffed by homeless people and volunteers. Mildly nomadic, they run street "cafés" which distribute food to their known members and to the general public. The Bruderhof has three locations in

625-515: A Scythian priest of Apollo by the name of Abaris the Hyperborean : Abaris stayed with Pythagoras, and was compendiously taught physiology and theology; and instead of divining by the entrails of beasts, he revealed to him the art of prognosticating by numbers, conceiving this to be a method purer, more divine, and more kindred to the celestial numbers of the Gods. This shouldn't be confused with

750-547: A close friend of Plato and he is quoted in Plato's Republic . Aristotle states that the philosophy of Plato was heavily dependent on the teachings of the Pythagoreans. Cicero repeats this statement, remarking that Platonem ferunt didicisse Pythagorea omnia ("They say Plato learned all things Pythagorean"). According to Charles H. Kahn , Plato's middle dialogues, including Meno , Phaedo , and The Republic , have

875-462: A combination of democratic and hierarchical structure, and 16 percent do not specify. The central characteristics of communes, or core principles that define communes, have been expressed in various forms over the years. The Suffolk-born radical John Goodwyn Barmby (1820-1881), subsequently a Unitarian minister, invented the term " communitarian " in 1840. At the start of the 1970s, The New Communes author Ron E. Roberts classified communes as

1000-422: A deadly snake bit Pythagoras, he bit it back and killed it. Both Porphyry and Iamblichus report that Pythagoras once persuaded a bull not to eat fava beans and that he once convinced a notoriously destructive bear to swear that it would never harm a living thing again, and that the bear kept its word. Riedweg suggests that Pythagoras may have personally encouraged these legends, but Gregory states that there

1125-462: A divine figure, sent by the gods to benefit humankind. Iamblichus, in particular, presents the "Pythagorean Way of Life" as a pagan alternative to the Christian monastic communities of his own time. For Pythagoreans, the highest reward a human could attain was for their soul to join in the life of the gods and thus escape the cycle of reincarnation. Two groups existed within early Pythagoreanism:

1250-433: A five-year initiation period, during which they were required to remain silent. Sources indicate that Pythagoras himself was unusually progressive in his attitudes towards women and female members of Pythagoras's school appear to have played an active role in its operations. Iamblichus provides a list of 235 famous Pythagoreans, seventeen of whom are women. In later times, many prominent female philosophers contributed to

1375-479: A fragment, Aristotle writes that Pythagoras had a golden thigh, which he publicly exhibited at the Olympic Games and showed to Abaris the Hyperborean as proof of his identity as the "Hyperborean Apollo". Supposedly, the priest of Apollo gave Pythagoras a magic arrow, which he used to fly over long distances and perform ritual purifications. He was supposedly once seen at both Metapontum and Croton at

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1500-489: A golden wreath atop his head and to have worn trousers after the fashion of the Thracians . Diogenes Laërtius presents Pythagoras as having exercised remarkable self-control ; he was always cheerful, but "abstained wholly from laughter, and from all such indulgences as jests and idle stories". Pythagoras was said to have had extraordinary success in dealing with animals. A fragment from Aristotle records that, when

1625-459: A lady of Crete and the daughter of Pythenax and had several children with her. Porphyry writes that Pythagoras had two sons named Telauges and Arignote , and a daughter named Myia, who "took precedence among the maidens in Croton and, when a wife, among married women." Iamblichus mentions none of these children and instead only mentions a son named Mnesarchus after his grandfather. This son

1750-436: A lawgiver. The so-called Pythagoreans applied themselves to mathematics, and were the first to develop this science; and through studying it they came to believe that its principles are the principles of everything. According to Aristotle, the Pythagoreans used mathematics for solely mystical reasons, devoid of practical application. They believed that all things were made of numbers. The number one (the monad ) represented

1875-568: A lesser degree, more influential in Russian society. Various patterns of Russian behavior — toloka (толока), pomochi (помочи), artel (артель) — are also based on communal ("мирские") traditions. In the years immediately following the revolutions of 1917 Tolstoyan communities proliferated in Russia, but later they were eventually wiped out or stripped of their independence as collectivisation and ideological purges got under way in

2000-601: A major revival in the first century BC among Middle Platonists , coinciding with the rise of Neopythagoreanism . Pythagoras continued to be regarded as a great philosopher throughout the Middle Ages and his philosophy had a major impact on scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus , Johannes Kepler , and Isaac Newton . Pythagorean symbolism was also used throughout early modern European esotericism , and his teachings as portrayed in Ovid 's Metamorphoses would later influence

2125-432: A natural response to the isolation and fragmentation of modern housing, offering a return to the social bonds and collaborative spirit found in traditional village life. The multitude of intentional communities includes collective households, cohousing communities, coliving , ecovillages , monasteries , survivalist retreats , kibbutzim , Hutterites , ashrams , and housing cooperatives . Ashrams are likely

2250-537: A new body. This teaching is referenced by Xenophanes, Ion of Chios, and Herodotus. Nothing whatsoever, however, is known about the nature or mechanism by which Pythagoras believed metempsychosis to occur. Empedocles alludes in one of his poems that Pythagoras may have claimed to possess the ability to recall his former incarnations. Diogenes Laërtius reports an account from Heraclides Ponticus that Pythagoras told people that he had lived four previous lives that he could remember in detail. The first of these lives

2375-443: A period of rapid urbanization between 1890 and 1930. About 100 intentional communities were started but data is unreliable. They often pursued nudism , vegetarian and organic agriculture, as well as various religious and political ideologies like anabaptism , theosophy , anarchism , socialism and eugenics . Historically, German emigrants were also influential in the creation of intentional communities in other countries, like

2500-489: A person should always put the right sandal on before the left. The exact meanings of these sayings, however, are frequently obscure. Iamblichus preserves Aristotle's descriptions of the original, ritualistic intentions behind a few of these sayings, but these apparently later fell out of fashion, because Porphyry provides markedly different ethical-philosophical interpretations of them: New initiates were allegedly not permitted to meet Pythagoras until after they had completed

2625-405: A popular legend, after he discovered this theorem, Pythagoras sacrificed an ox, or possibly even a whole hecatomb , to the gods. Cicero rejected this story as spurious because of the much more widely held belief that Pythagoras forbade blood sacrifices. Porphyry attempted to explain the story by asserting that the ox was actually made of dough . The Pythagorean theorem was known and used by

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2750-640: A proclivity towards tyranny. Other accounts claim that Pythagoras left Samos because he was so overburdened with public duties in Samos, because of the high estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. He arrived in the Greek colony of Croton (today's Crotone , in Calabria ) in what was then Magna Graecia . All sources agree that Pythagoras was charismatic and quickly acquired great political influence in his new environment. He served as an advisor to

2875-510: A result of Pherecydes's influence. Another story, which may be traced to the Neopythagorean philosopher Nicomachus , tells that, when Pherecydes was old and dying on the island of Delos , Pythagoras returned to care for him and pay his respects. Duris , the historian and tyrant of Samos, is reported to have patriotically boasted of an epitaph supposedly penned by Pherecydes which declared that Pythagoras's wisdom exceeded his own. On

3000-428: A secure basis for philosophy, science, and morality. Plato and Pythagoras shared a "mystical approach to the soul and its place in the material world" and both were probably influenced by Orphism . The historian of philosophy Frederick Copleston states that Plato probably borrowed his tripartite theory of the soul from the Pythagoreans. Bertrand Russell , in his A History of Western Philosophy , contends that

3125-562: A simplified version known today as " Pythagorean numerology ", involving a variant of an isopsephic technique known – among other names – as pythmenes ' roots ' or ' base numbers ' , by means of which the base values of letters in a word were mathematically reduced by addition or division, in order to obtain a single value from one to nine for the whole name or word; these 'roots' or 'base numbers' could then be interpreted with other techniques, such as traditional Pythagorean attributions. This latter form of numerology flourished during

3250-479: A specific building that was still in use during his own time, appears to be motivated by Samian patriotic interest. Around 530 BC, when Pythagoras was about forty years old, he left Samos. His later admirers claimed that he left because he disagreed with the tyranny of Polycrates in Samos, Riedweg notes that this explanation closely aligns with Nicomachus's emphasis on Pythagoras's purported love of freedom, but that Pythagoras's enemies portrayed him as having

3375-423: A strong "Pythagorean coloring", and his last few dialogues (particularly Philebus and Timaeus ) are extremely Pythagorean in character. According to R. M. Hare , Plato's Republic may be partially based on the "tightly organised community of like-minded thinkers" established by Pythagoras at Croton. Additionally, Plato may have borrowed from Pythagoras the idea that mathematics and abstract thought are

3500-495: A subclass of a larger category of utopias . He listed three main characteristics: Twenty-five years later, Dr. Bill Metcalf, in his edited book Shared Visions, Shared Lives , defined communes as having the following core principles: Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealized form of family , being a new sort of "primary group" (generally with fewer than 20 people, although there are examples of much larger communes). Commune members have emotional bonds to

3625-534: A synthesis of everything Pythagoras had learned from Orpheus, from the Egyptian priests, from the Eleusinian Mysteries , and from other religious and philosophical traditions. Riedweg states that, although these stories are fanciful, Pythagoras's teachings were definitely influenced by Orphism to a noteworthy extent. Of the various Greek sages claimed to have taught Pythagoras, Pherecydes of Syros

3750-471: A time and 29 new members joined. However, in 1833 the experiment collapsed due to the gambling debts of John Vandeleur. The members of the commune met for the last time on 23 November 1833 and placed on record a declaration of "the contentment, peace and happiness they had experienced for two years under the arrangements introduced by Mr. Vandeleur and Mr. Craig and which through no fault of the Association

3875-472: A vow of silence that they would not reveal these symbols to non-members. Those who did not obey the laws of the community were expelled and the remaining members would erect tombstones for them as though they had died. A number of "oral sayings" ( akoúsmata ) attributed to Pythagoras have survived, dealing with how members of the Pythagorean community should perform sacrifices, how they should honor

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4000-434: A wooden marquee, a wood store and a workshop. The community in 1998 consisted of 12 adults and 10 children who were mainly vegetarian, grew their own crops and lived off the land. In 1998 the settlement, which then also included five straw bale buildings and one wooden geodesic dome, was spotted from the air and reported to the authorities. The authorities identified fourteen infringements of planning regulations, including

4125-589: Is communal meals . Egalitarian values can be combined with other values. Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities this way: Members of Christian intentional communities want to emulate the practices of the earliest believers. Using the biblical book of Acts (and, often, the Sermon on the Mount ) as a model, members of these communities strive to demonstrate their faith in a corporate context, and to live out

4250-413: Is mentioned most often. Similar miracle stories were told about both Pythagoras and Pherecydes, including one in which the hero predicts a shipwreck, one in which he predicts the conquest of Messina , and one in which he drinks from a well and predicts an earthquake. Apollonius Paradoxographus , a paradoxographer who may have lived in the second century BC, identified Pythagoras's thaumaturgic ideas as

4375-478: Is no direct evidence of this. Anti-Pythagorean legends were also circulated. Diogenes Laërtes retells a story told by Hermippus of Samos, which states that Pythagoras had once gone into an underground room, telling everyone that he was descending to the underworld. He stayed in this room for months, while his mother secretly recorded everything that happened during his absence. After he returned from this room, Pythagoras recounted everything that had happened while he

4500-730: Is safe rather than traditional, organic food growers incurring financial penalties) and the community is off-grid for supplies of water, electricity and wood being used for fuel in heating and cooking. People work both locally and on-site to manage the farm and earn a living. The aim of the community is to live an environmentally sustainable and ethical lifestyle. Their work is based on three "pillars" of community, sustainability and education. In 2017 they owned four horses, three goats, four geese, four ducks and three beehives. Their website states that they are currently looking for investors, income generating ideas and new members. In 1993, architectural historian Julian Orbach and his wife Emma Orbach set up

4625-1059: Is the "transmigration of souls" or metempsychosis , which holds that every soul is immortal and, upon death, enters into a new body . He may have also devised the doctrine of musica universalis , which holds that the planets move according to mathematical equations and thus resonate to produce an inaudible symphony of music. Scholars debate whether Pythagoras developed the numerological and musical teachings attributed to him, or if those teachings were developed by his later followers, particularly Philolaus of Croton . Following Croton's decisive victory over Sybaris in around 510 BC, Pythagoras's followers came into conflict with supporters of democracy , and Pythagorean meeting houses were burned. Pythagoras may have been killed during this persecution, or he may have escaped to Metapontum and died there. Pythagoras influenced Plato, whose dialogues , especially his Timaeus , exhibit Pythagorean teachings. Pythagorean ideas on mathematical perfection also impacted ancient Greek art . His teachings underwent

4750-510: Is the one from Diogenes Laërtius 's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers . The two later biographies were written by the Neoplatonist philosophers Porphyry and Iamblichus and were partially intended as polemics against the rise of Christianity . The later sources are much lengthier than the earlier ones, and even more fantastic in their descriptions of Pythagoras's achievements. Porphyry and Iamblichus used material from

4875-777: The Protrepticus . Aristotle's disciples Dicaearchus , Aristoxenus , and Heraclides Ponticus (who all lived in the 3rd century BC) also wrote on the same subject. Most of the major sources on Pythagoras's life are from the Roman period , by which point, according to the German classicist Walter Burkert , "the history of Pythagoreanism was already   ... the laborious reconstruction of something lost and gone." Three ancient biographies of Pythagoras have survived from late antiquity, all of which are filled primarily with myths and legends. The earliest and most respectable of these

5000-467: The Babylonians and Indians centuries before Pythagoras, but he may have been the first to introduce it to the Greeks. Some historians of mathematics have even suggested that he—or his students—may have constructed the first proof . Burkert rejects this suggestion as implausible, noting that Pythagoras was never credited with having proved any theorem in antiquity. Furthermore, the manner in which

5125-728: The Bruderhof in the United States of America and Kibbutzim in Israel. In the 1960s, there was a resurgence of communities calling themselves communes, starting with the Kommune 1 in Berlin , without knowledge of or influence by previous movements. A large number of contemporary intentional communities define themselves as communes, and there is a network of political communes called "Kommuja" with about 40 member groups (May 2023). In

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5250-639: The Byzantine era , and was first attested among the Gnostics of the second century AD. By that time, isopsephy had developed into several different techniques that were used for a variety of purposes; including divination, doctrinal allegory, and medical prognosis and treatment. In the visits to various places in Greece— Delos , Sparta , Phlius , Crete , etc.—which are ascribed to him, he usually appears either in his religious or priestly guise, or else as

5375-492: The Celts and Iberians . Ancient sources also record Pythagoras having studied under a variety of native Greek thinkers. Some identify Hermodamas of Samos as a possible tutor. Hermodamas represented the indigenous Samian rhapsodic tradition and his father Creophylos was said to have been the host of his rival poet Homer . Others credit Bias of Priene , Thales, or Anaximander (a pupil of Thales). Other traditions claim

5500-555: The Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), reported that 54 percent of the communities choosing to list themselves were rural, 28 percent were urban, 10 percent had both rural and urban sites, and 8 percent did not specify. The most common form of governance in intentional communities is democratic (64 percent), with decisions made by some form of consensus decision-making or voting. A hierarchical or authoritarian structure governs 9 percent of communities, 11 percent are

5625-689: The Magi in Persia or even from Zoroaster himself. Diogenes Laërtius asserts that Pythagoras later visited Crete , where he went to the Cave of Ida with Epimenides . The Phoenicians are reputed to have taught Pythagoras arithmetic and the Chaldeans to have taught him astronomy. By the third century BC, Pythagoras was already reported to have studied under the Jews as well. Contradicting all these reports,

5750-466: The mathematikoi ("learners") and the akousmatikoi ("listeners"). The akousmatikoi are traditionally identified by scholars as "old believers" in mysticism, numerology, and religious teachings; whereas the mathematikoi are traditionally identified as a more intellectual, modernist faction who were more rationalist and scientific. Gregory cautions that there was probably not a sharp distinction between them and that many Pythagoreans probably believed

5875-613: The 1890s. There is a long history of utopian communities in America that led to the rise in the communes of the hippie movement—the " back-to-the-land " ventures of the 1960s and 1970s. One commune that played a large role in the hippie movement was Kaliflower , a utopian living cooperative that existed in San Francisco between 1967 and 1973 built on values of free love and anti-capitalism . Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times wrote that "after decades of contraction,

6000-551: The Afrikaans language and the Afrikaner culture. By 2022, the population was 2,500. The town was experiencing rapid growth and the population had climbed by 55% from 2018. They favour a model of strict Afrikaner self-sufficiency and have their own currency, bank, local government and only employ Afrikaners. A 19th century advocate and practitioner of communal living was the utopian socialist John Goodwyn Barmby , who founded

6125-555: The American commune movement has been expanding since the mid-1990s, spurred by the growth of settlements that seek to marry the utopian-minded commune of the 1960s with the American predilection for privacy and capital appreciation". The Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) is one of the main sources for listings of and more information about communes in the United States. Although many American communes are short-lived, some have been in operation for over 50 years. The Bruderhof

6250-669: The Babylonians employed Pythagorean numbers implies that they knew that the principle was generally applicable, and knew some kind of proof, which has not yet been found in the (still largely unpublished) cuneiform sources. Pythagoras's biographers state that he also was the first to identify the five regular solids and that he was the first to discover the Theory of Proportions . According to legend, Pythagoras discovered that musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations when he passed blacksmiths at work one day and heard

6375-444: The Egyptian priests at Diospolis (Thebes), and that he was the only foreigner ever to be granted the privilege of taking part in their worship. The Middle Platonist biographer Plutarch ( c.  46  – c.  120  AD) writes in his treatise On Isis and Osiris that, during his visit to Egypt, Pythagoras received instruction from the Egyptian priest Oenuphis of Heliopolis (meanwhile Solon received lectures from

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6500-554: The German commune book, Das KommuneBuch , communes are defined by Elisabeth Voß as communities which: Kibbutzim in Israel , (sing., kibbutz) are examples of officially organized communes, the first of which were based on agriculture. Other Israeli communities are Kvutza , Yishuv Kehilati , Moshavim and Kfar No'ar . Today, there are dozens of urban communes growing in the cities of Israel, often called urban kibbutzim . The urban kibbutzim are smaller and more anarchist . Most of

6625-527: The Pythagoreans during one of their meetings, either in the house of Milo or in some other meeting-place. Accounts of the attack are often contradictory and many probably confused it with the later anti-Pythagorean rebellions, such as the one in Metapontum in 454 BC. The building was apparently set on fire, and many of the assembled members perished; only the younger and more active members managed to escape. Sources disagree regarding whether Pythagoras

6750-766: The UK. In Glandwr , near Crymych , Pembrokeshire , a co-op called Lammas Ecovillage focuses on planning and sustainable development . Granted planning permission by the Welsh Government in 2009, it has since created 9 holdings and is a central communal hub for its community. In Scotland , the Findhorn Foundation founded by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean in 1962 is prominent for its educational centre and experimental architectural community project based at The Park, in Moray , Scotland, near

6875-527: The age of 40, which would give a date of birth around 570 BC. Pythagoras's name led him to be associated with Pythian Apollo ( Pūthíā ); Aristippus of Cyrene in the 4th century BC explained his name by saying, "He spoke [ ἀγορεύω , agoreúō ] the truth no less than did the Pythian [ πυθικός puthikós ]". During Pythagoras's formative years, Samos was a thriving cultural hub known for its feats of advanced architectural engineering, including

7000-431: The boys' "raging willfulness" was quelled. The Pythagoreans also placed particular emphasis on the importance of physical exercise ; therapeutic dancing , daily morning walks along scenic routes , and athletics were major components of the Pythagorean lifestyle. Moments of contemplation at the beginning and end of each day were also advised. Pythagorean teachings were known as "symbols" ( symbola ) and members took

7125-566: The building of the Tunnel of Eupalinos , and for its riotous festival culture. It was a major center of trade in the Aegean where traders brought goods from the Near East . According to Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, these traders almost certainly brought with them Near Eastern ideas and traditions. Pythagoras's early life also coincided with the flowering of early Ionian natural philosophy . He

7250-463: The city of Metapontum , where they took shelter in the temple of the Muses and died there of starvation after forty days without food. Another tale recorded by Porphyry claims that, as Pythagoras's enemies were burning the house, his devoted students laid down on the ground to make a path for him to escape by walking over their bodies across the flames like a bridge. Pythagoras managed to escape, but

7375-475: The commune. It was set up with a population of 22 adult single men, 7 married women and their 7 husbands, 5 single women, 4 orphan boys and 5 children under the age of 9 years. No money was employed, only credit notes which could be used in the commune shop. All occupants were committed to a life with no alcohol, tobacco, snuff or gambling. All were required to work for 12 hours a day during the summer and from dawn to dusk in winter. The social experiment prospered for

7500-487: The community in the foothills of Mynydd Carningli (Angel Mountain), near Newport , Pembrokeshire within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park without planning permission or publicity. The Orbachs initially renovated a rundown farmhouse and moved in with their three children. Other buildings were built, including a roundhouse with a turf roof, later to become known as That Roundhouse ,

7625-439: The current owner, of his intention not to renew the lease from 2020. The community members were offered first refusal to purchase the site at a price of £1 million. However, according to the community's website, the owner then granted them a six-year extension of the lease. Intentional community Although intentional communities are sometimes described as alternative lifestyles or social experiments , some see them as

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7750-413: The development of Neopythagoreanism . Pythagoreanism also entailed a number of dietary prohibitions. It is more or less agreed that Pythagoras issued a prohibition against the consumption of fava beans and the meat of non-sacrificial animals such as fish and poultry. Both of these assumptions, however, have been contradicted. Pythagorean dietary restrictions may have been motivated by belief in

7875-449: The doctrine of metempsychosis . Some ancient writers present Pythagoras as enforcing a strictly vegetarian diet. Eudoxus of Cnidus , a student of Archytas, writes, "Pythagoras was distinguished by such purity and so avoided killing and killers that he not only abstained from animal foods, but even kept his distance from cooks and hunters." Other authorities contradict this statement. According to Aristoxenus , Pythagoras allowed

8000-407: The earliest intentional communities, founded around 1500 BCE. Buddhist monasteries appeared around 500 BCE. Pythagoras founded an intellectual vegetarian commune in about 525 BCE in southern Italy. Hundreds of modern intentional communities were formed across Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand out of the intellectual foment of utopianism . Intentional communities exhibit

8125-420: The earliest texts to describe the numerological and musical theories that were later ascribed to Pythagoras. The Athenian rhetorician Isocrates ( c.  436  – c.  338  BC) was the first to describe Pythagoras as having visited Egypt. Aristotle ( c.  384  – c.  322  BC) wrote a treatise On the Pythagoreans , which no longer exists. Some of it may be preserved in

8250-399: The early fourth century BC. Around the same time, the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas was highly influential on the politics of the city of Tarentum in Magna Graecia. According to later tradition, Archytas was elected as strategos ("general") seven times, even though others were prohibited from serving more than a year. Archytas was also a renowned mathematician and musician. He was

8375-421: The education, employment, and daily lives of adults and children with developmental disabilities , mental health problems or other special needs . Many cultures naturally practice communal or tribal living, and would not designate their way of life as a planned "commune" per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of a commune. In Australia , many intentional communities started with

8500-531: The elites in Croton and gave them frequent advice. Later biographers tell fantastical stories of the effects of his eloquent speeches in leading the people of Croton to abandon their luxurious and corrupt way of life and devote themselves to the purer system which he came to introduce. Diogenes Laërtius states that Pythagoras "did not indulge in the pleasures of love" and that he cautioned others to only have sex "whenever you are willing to be weaker than yourself". According to Porphyry, Pythagoras married Theano ,

8625-418: The exact details of Pythagoras's teachings are uncertain, it is possible to reconstruct a general outline of his main ideas. Aristotle writes at length about the teachings of the Pythagoreans, but without mentioning Pythagoras directly. One of Pythagoras's main doctrines appears to have been metempsychosis , the belief that all souls are immortal and that, after death, a soul is transferred into

8750-476: The exclusion of outsiders. Ancient sources record that the Pythagoreans ate meals in common after the manner of the Spartans . One Pythagorean maxim was " koinà tà phílōn " ("All things in common among friends"). Both Iamblichus and Porphyry provide detailed accounts of the organization of the school, although the primary interest of both writers is not historical accuracy, but rather to present Pythagoras as

8875-478: The fields of music , astronomy , and medicine . Since at least the first century BC, Pythagoras has commonly been given credit for discovering the Pythagorean theorem, a theorem in geometry that states that "in a right-angled triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal [to the sum of] the squares of the two other sides" —that is, a 2 + b 2 = c 2 {\displaystyle a^{2}+b^{2}=c^{2}} . According to

9000-465: The first to teach that the Earth was spherical , the first to divide the globe into five climatic zones , and the first to identify the morning star and the evening star as the same celestial object (now known as Venus ). Of the two philosophers, Parmenides has a much stronger claim to having been the first and the attribution of these discoveries to Pythagoras seems to have possibly originated from

9125-522: The globe into five climatic zones . Classical historians debate whether Pythagoras made these discoveries, and many of the accomplishments credited to him likely originated earlier or were made by his colleagues or successors. Some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to mathematics and that numbers were important, but it is debated to what extent, if at all, he actually contributed to mathematics or natural philosophy . The teaching most securely identified with Pythagoras

9250-461: The gods, how they should "move from here", and how they should be buried. Many of these sayings emphasize the importance of ritual purity and avoiding defilement. For instance, a saying which Leonid Zhmud concludes can probably be genuinely traced back to Pythagoras himself forbids his followers from wearing woolen garments. Other extant oral sayings forbid Pythagoreans from breaking bread, poking fires with swords, or picking up crumbs and teach that

9375-490: The grounds of all these references connecting Pythagoras with Pherecydes, Riedweg concludes that there may well be some historical foundation to the tradition that Pherecydes was Pythagoras's teacher. Pythagoras and Pherecydes also appear to have shared similar views on the soul and the teaching of metempsychosis. Before 520 BC, on one of his visits to Egypt or Greece, Pythagoras might have met Thales of Miletus , who would have been around fifty-four years older than him. Thales

9500-603: The hippie movement and those searching for social alternatives to the nuclear family. One of the oldest continuously running communities is called " Moora Moora Co-operative Community" with about 47 members (Oct 2021). Located at the top of Mount Toolebewong , 65 km east of Melbourne, Victoria at an altitude of 600–800 m, this community has been entirely off the electricity grid since its inception in 1974. Founding members still resident include Peter and Sandra Cock. The first wave of utopian communities in Germany began during

9625-420: The historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( c.  484  – c.  420  BC), who describes him as one of the greatest Greek teachers and states that Pythagoras taught his followers how to attain immortality . The accuracy of the works of Herodotus is controversial. The writings attributed to the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus of Croton ( c.  470  – c.  385  BC) are

9750-411: The influence of Pythagoras on Plato and others was so great that he should be considered the most influential philosopher of all time. He concludes that "I do not know of any other man who has been as influential as he was in the school of thought." A revival of Pythagorean teachings occurred in the first century BC when Middle Platonist philosophers such as Eudorus and Philo of Alexandria hailed

9875-638: The lake, the cycle shed, the Dome, and the roundhouse. All infringements, except those relating to the Roundhouse, were resolved. In 2019 the cycle shed was still without planning permission. By 2001 the land was split in three parts, with ownership of the land around the disputed roundhouse being transferred to the Roundhouse Trust. Julian Orbach left the site and moved into the town, but retained ownership of about 80 acres (320,000 m) including

10000-581: The late 1920s. Colonies, such as the Life and Labor Commune , relocated to Siberia to avoid being liquidated. Several Tolstoyan leaders, including Yakov Dragunovsky (1886-1937), were put on trial and then sent to the Gulag prison camps. In 1991, Afrikaners in South Africa founded the controversial Afrikaner-only town of Orania , with the goal of creating a stronghold for the Afrikaner minority group,

10125-439: The lost writings of Aristotle's disciples (Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, and Heraclides) and material taken from these sources is generally considered to be the most reliable. There is not a single detail in the life of Pythagoras that stands uncontradicted. But it is possible, from a more or less critical selection of the data, to construct a plausible account. Herodotus , Isocrates , and other early writers agree that Pythagoras

10250-480: The modern vegetarian movement. No authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived, and almost nothing is known for certain about his life. The earliest sources on Pythagoras's life are brief, ambiguous, and often satirical . The earliest source on Pythagoras's teachings is a satirical poem probably written after his death by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon ( c.  570  – c.  478  BC), who had been one of his contemporaries. In

10375-711: The mythic bard Orpheus as Pythagoras's teacher, thus representing the Orphic Mysteries . The Neoplatonists wrote of a "sacred discourse" Pythagoras had written on the gods in the Doric Greek dialect, which they believed had been dictated to Pythagoras by the Orphic priest Aglaophamus upon his initiation to the orphic Mysteries at Leibethra . Iamblichus credited Orpheus with having been the model for Pythagoras's manner of speech, his spiritual attitude, and his manner of worship. Iamblichus describes Pythagoreanism as

10500-401: The neighboring colony of Sybaris in 510 BC. After the victory, some prominent citizens of Croton proposed a democratic constitution , which the Pythagoreans rejected. The supporters of democracy, headed by Cylon and Ninon, the former of whom is said to have been irritated by his exclusion from Pythagoras's brotherhood, roused the populace against them. Followers of Cylon and Ninon attacked

10625-451: The novelist Antonius Diogenes , writing in the second century BC, reports that Pythagoras discovered all his doctrines himself by interpreting dreams . The third-century AD Sophist Philostratus claims that, in addition to the Egyptians, Pythagoras also studied under sages or gymnosophists in India . Iamblichus expands this list even further by claiming that Pythagoras also studied with

10750-499: The number philosophy attributed to him was really an innovation by Philolaus. According to Burkert, Pythagoras never dealt with numbers at all, let alone made any noteworthy contribution to mathematics. Burkert argues that the only mathematics the Pythagoreans ever actually engaged in was simple, proofless arithmetic , but that these arithmetic discoveries did contribute significantly to the beginnings of mathematics. Both Plato and Isocrates state that, above all else, Pythagoras

10875-545: The old farmhouse and outbuildings, which was leased to the Brithdir Mawr Housing Co-op. Emma Orbach adopted the rest, which is known as Tir Ysbrydol (spirit land), and became involved in planning negotiations in relation to new and existing straw bale round huts and structures. In 2015 Emma featured in an episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild . In 2016 the community was notified by Julian Orbach,

11000-415: The origin of all things and the number two (the dyad ) represented matter. The number three was an "ideal number" because it had a beginning, middle, and end and was the smallest number of points that could be used to define a plane triangle, which they revered as a symbol of the god Apollo . The number four signified the four seasons and the four elements . The number seven was also sacred because it

11125-481: The permanent reality behind superficial appearances. Early Archaic sculpture represents life in simple forms, and may have been influenced by the earliest Greek natural philosophies. The Greeks generally believed that nature expressed itself in ideal forms and was represented by a type ( εἶδος ), which was mathematically calculated. When dimensions changed, architects sought to relay permanence through mathematics. Maurice Bowra believes that these ideas influenced

11250-471: The philosophies of Plato , Aristotle , and, through them, the West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend; modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle. In antiquity, Pythagoras

11375-507: The poem, Xenophanes describes Pythagoras interceding on behalf of a dog that is being beaten, professing to recognize in its cries the voice of a departed friend. Alcmaeon of Croton ( fl.   c.  450  BC), a doctor who lived in Croton at around the same time Pythagoras lived there, incorporates many Pythagorean teachings into his writings and alludes to having possibly known Pythagoras personally. The poet Heraclitus of Ephesus (fl.   c.  500  BC), who

11500-549: The priestess Aristoclea ( Aristokleia ). Ancient authorities furthermore note the similarities between the religious and ascetic peculiarities of Pythagoras with the Orphic or Cretan mysteries , or the Delphic oracle . Porphyry repeats an account from Antiphon , who reported that, while he was still on Samos, Pythagoras founded a school known as the "semicircle". Here, Samians debated matters of public concern. Supposedly,

11625-666: The result of confusion with a different man named Pythagoras, who was an athletics trainer. Diogenes Laërtius records Milo's wife's name as Myia. Iamblichus mentions Theano as the wife of Brontinus of Croton. Diogenes Laërtius states that the same Theano was Pythagoras's pupil and that Pythagoras's wife Theano was her daughter. Diogenes Laërtius also records that works supposedly written by Theano were still extant during his own lifetime and quotes several opinions attributed to her. These writings are now known to be pseudepigraphical . Pythagoras's emphasis on dedication and asceticism are credited with aiding in Croton's decisive victory over

11750-731: The rise of a "new" Pythagoreanism in Alexandria . At around the same time, Neopythagoreanism became prominent. The first-century AD philosopher Apollonius of Tyana sought to emulate Pythagoras and live by Pythagorean teachings. The later first-century Neopythagorean philosopher Moderatus of Gades expanded on Pythagorean number philosophy and probably understood the soul as a "kind of mathematical harmony". The Neopythagorean mathematician and musicologist Nicomachus likewise expanded on Pythagorean numerology and music theory. Numenius of Apamea interpreted Plato's teachings in light of Pythagorean doctrines. Greek sculpture sought to represent

11875-425: The same time . When Pythagoras crossed the river Kosas (the modern-day Basento ), "several witnesses" reported that they heard it greet him by name. In Roman times, a legend claimed that Pythagoras was the son of Apollo. According to Muslim tradition , Pythagoras was said to have been initiated by Hermes (Egyptian Thoth ). Pythagoras was said to have dressed all in white. He is also said to have borne

12000-451: The school became so renowned that the brightest minds in all of Greece came to Samos to hear Pythagoras teach. Pythagoras himself dwelled in a secret cave, where he studied in private and occasionally held discourses with a few of his close friends. Christoph Riedweg, a German scholar of early Pythagoreanism, states that it is entirely possible Pythagoras may have taught on Samos, but cautions that Antiphon's account, which makes reference to

12125-493: The sound of their hammers clanging against the anvils. Thinking that the sounds of the hammers were beautiful and harmonious, except for one, he rushed into the blacksmith shop and began testing the hammers. He then realized that the tune played when the hammer struck was directly proportional to the size of the hammer and therefore concluded that music was mathematical. In ancient times, Pythagoras and his contemporary Parmenides of Elea were both credited with having been

12250-525: The teachings of the New Testament , practicing compassion and hospitality. Communities such as the Simple Way , the Bruderhof and Rutba House would fall into this category. Despite strict membership criteria, these communities are open to visitors and not reclusive to the extent of some other intentional communities. A survey in the 1995 edition of the " Communities Directory ", published by

12375-439: The theory of Pythagoras and his students, who believed that "all things are numbers". During the sixth century BC, the number philosophy of the Pythagoreans triggered a revolution in Greek sculpture. Greek sculptors and architects attempted to find the mathematical relation ( canon ) behind aesthetic perfection. Possibly drawing on the ideas of Pythagoras, the sculptor Polykleitos wrote in his Canon that beauty consists in

12500-477: The tradition linking Pythagoras to the tetractys is probably genuine. Modern scholars debate whether these numerological teachings were developed by Pythagoras himself or by the later Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus of Croton . In his landmark study Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism , Walter Burkert argues that Pythagoras was a charismatic political and religious teacher, but that

12625-421: The two approaches were compatible. The study of mathematics and music may have been connected to the worship of Apollo. The Pythagoreans believed that music was a purification for the soul, just as medicine was a purification for the body. One anecdote of Pythagoras reports that when he encountered some drunken youths trying to break into the home of a virtuous woman, he sang a solemn tune with long spondees and

12750-518: The urban communes in Israel emphasize social change, education, and local involvement in the cities where they live. Some of the urban communes have members who are graduates of zionist - socialist youth movements, like HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed , HaMahanot HaOlim and Hashomer Hatsair . In 1831 John Vandeleur (a landlord) established a commune on his Ralahine Estate at Newmarket-on-Fergus , County Clare . Vandeleur asked Edward Thomas Craig, an English socialist, to formulate rules and regulations for

12875-426: The use of all kinds of animal food except the flesh of oxen used for ploughing , and rams . According to Heraclides Ponticus, Pythagoras ate the meat from sacrifices and established a diet for athletes dependent on meat. Within his own lifetime, Pythagoras was already the subject of elaborate hagiographic legends. Aristotle described Pythagoras as a wonder-worker and somewhat of a supernatural figure. In

13000-1076: The utopian ambition to create a better, more sustainable world for living. Nevertheless, the term utopian community as a synonym for an intentional community might be considered to be of pejorative nature and many intentional communities do not consider themselves to be utopian. Also the alternative term commune is considered to be non-neutral or even linked to leftist politics or hippies . Additional terms referring to an intentional community can be alternative lifestyle , intentional society , cooperative community , withdrawn community , enacted community , socialist colony , communistic society , collective settlement , communal society , commune , mutualistic community , communitarian experiment , experimental community , utopian experiment , practical utopia , and utopian society . The purposes of intentional communities vary and may be political, spiritual , economic, or environmental. In addition to spiritual communities, secular communities also exist. One common practice, particularly in spiritual communities,

13125-718: The village of Findhorn . The Findhorn Ecovillage community at The Park, Findhorn, a village in Moray, Scotland, and at Cluny Hill in Forres , now houses more than 400 people. Historic agricultural examples include the Diggers settlement on St George's Hill , Surrey during the English Civil War and the Clousden Hill Free Communist and Co-operative Colony near Newcastle upon Tyne during

13250-535: The whole group rather than to any sub-group, and the commune is experienced with emotions that go beyond just social collectivity . With the simple definition of a commune as an intentional community with 100% income sharing, the online directory of the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) lists 222 communes worldwide (28 January 2019). Some of these are religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries . Others are based in anthroposophic philosophy, including Camphill villages that provide support for

13375-562: Was a contemporary of the philosophers Anaximander , Anaximenes , and the historian Hecataeus , all of whom lived in Miletus , across the sea from Samos. Pythagoras is traditionally thought to have received most of his education in the Near East. Modern scholarship has shown that the culture of Archaic Greece was heavily influenced by those of Levantine and Mesopotamian cultures. Like many other important Greek thinkers, Pythagoras

13500-466: Was a native of Samos , descending from a geomoroi family. Apollonius of Tyana , gives her name as Pythaïs. Iamblichus tells the story that the Pythia prophesied to her while she was pregnant with him that she would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and beneficial to humankind. As to the date of his birth, Aristoxenus stated that Pythagoras left Samos in the reign of Polycrates , at

13625-544: Was a philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and engineer, also known for a special case of the inscribed angle theorem . Pythagoras's birthplace, the island of Samos , is situated in the Northeast Aegean Sea not far from Miletus . Diogenes Laërtius cites a statement from Aristoxenus (fourth century BC) stating that Pythagoras learned most of his moral doctrines from the Delphic priestess Themistoclea . Porphyry agrees with this assertion but calls

13750-557: Was as Aethalides the son of Hermes , who granted him the ability to remember all his past incarnations. Next, he was incarnated as Euphorbus , a minor hero from the Trojan War briefly mentioned in the Iliad . He then became the philosopher Hermotimus , who recognized the shield of Euphorbus in the temple of Apollo. His final incarnation was as Pyrrhus, a fisherman from Delos . One of his past lives, as reported by Dicaearchus ,

13875-505: Was as a beautiful courtesan. Another belief attributed to Pythagoras was that of the " harmony of the spheres ", which maintained that the planets and stars move according to mathematical equations, which correspond to musical notes and thus produce an inaudible symphony. According to Porphyry, Pythagoras taught that the seven Muses were actually the seven planets singing together. In his philosophical dialogue Protrepticus , Aristotle has his literary double say: When Pythagoras

14000-492: Was asked [why humans exist], he said, "to observe the heavens", and he used to claim that he himself was an observer of nature, and it was for the sake of this that he had passed over into life. Pythagoras was said to have practiced divination and prophecy . The earliest mentions of divination by isopsephy in Greek literature associate it with Pythagoras; he was viewed as the founder of this practice. According to his biographer, Iamblichus, he taught his method of divination to

14125-667: Was born across a few miles of sea away from Samos and may have lived within Pythagoras's lifetime, mocked Pythagoras as a clever charlatan, remarking that "Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practiced inquiry more than any other man, and selecting from these writings he manufactured a wisdom for himself—much learning, artful knavery." The Greek poets Ion of Chios ( c.  480  – c.  421  BC) and Empedocles of Acragas ( c.  493  – c.  432  BC) both express admiration for Pythagoras in their poems. The first concise description of Pythagoras comes from

14250-427: Was credited with devising the tetractys , the triangular figure of four rows which add up to the perfect number, ten. The Pythagoreans regarded the tetractys as a symbol of utmost mystical importance. Iamblichus, in his Life of Pythagoras , states that the tetractys was "so admirable, and so divinised by those who understood [it]," that Pythagoras's students would swear oaths by it. Andrew Gregory concludes that

14375-522: Was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem , Pythagorean tuning , the five regular solids , the Theory of Proportions , the sphericity of the Earth , and the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus . It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher ("lover of wisdom") and that he was the first to divide

14500-658: Was established in the US in 1954, Twin Oaks in 1967 and Koinonia Farm in 1942. Twin Oaks is a rare example of a non-religious commune surviving for longer than 30 years. 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

14625-457: Was gone, convincing everyone that he had really been in the underworld and leading them to trust him with their wives. Although Pythagoras is most famous today for his alleged mathematical discoveries, classical historians dispute whether he himself ever actually made any significant contributions to the field. Many mathematical and scientific discoveries were attributed to Pythagoras, including his famous theorem , as well as discoveries in

14750-463: Was known as the founder of a new way of life. The organization Pythagoras founded at Croton was called a "school", but, in many ways, resembled a monastery . The adherents were bound by a vow to Pythagoras and each other, for the purpose of pursuing the religious and ascetic observances, and of studying his religious and philosophical theories. The members of the sect shared all their possessions in common and were devoted to each other to

14875-471: Was now at an end". In imperial Russia , the vast majority of Russian peasants held their land in communal ownership within a mir community, which acted as a village government and a cooperative. The very widespread and influential pre-Soviet Russian tradition of monastic communities of both sexes could also be considered a form of communal living. After the end of communism in Russia , monastic communities have again become more common, populous and, to

15000-470: Was present when the attack occurred and, if he was, whether or not he managed to escape. In some accounts, Pythagoras was not at the meeting when the Pythagoreans were attacked because he was on Delos tending to the dying Pherecydes. According to another account from Dicaearchus, Pythagoras was at the meeting and managed to escape, leading a small group of followers to the nearby city of Locris , where they pleaded for sanctuary, but were denied. They reached

15125-445: Was raised by Pythagoras's appointed successor Aristaeus and eventually took over the school when Aristaeus was too old to continue running it. Suda writes that Pythagoras had 4 children (Telauges, Mnesarchus, Myia and Arignote). The wrestler Milo of Croton was said to have been a close associate of Pythagoras and was credited with having saved the philosopher's life when a roof was about to collapse. This association may have been

15250-654: Was said to have studied in Egypt . By the time of Isocrates in the fourth century BC, Pythagoras's reputed studies in Egypt were already taken as fact. The writer Antiphon , who may have lived during the Hellenistic Era, claimed in his lost work On Men of Outstanding Merit , used as a source by Porphyry, that Pythagoras learned to speak Egyptian from the Pharaoh Amasis II himself, that he studied with

15375-496: Was so despondent at the deaths of his beloved students that he committed suicide. A different legend reported by both Diogenes Laërtius and Iamblichus states that Pythagoras almost managed to escape, but that he came to a fava bean field and refused to run through it, since doing so would violate his teachings, so he stopped instead and was killed. This story seems to have originated from the writer Neanthes, who told it about later Pythagoreans, not about Pythagoras himself. Although

15500-455: Was the number of planets and the number of strings on a lyre, and because Apollo's birthday was celebrated on the seventh day of each month. They believed that odd numbers were masculine , that even numbers were feminine , and that the number five represented marriage, because it was the sum of two and three. Ten was regarded as the "perfect number" and the Pythagoreans honored it by never gathering in groups larger than ten. Pythagoras

15625-405: Was the son of Mnesarchus, and that he was born on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean . According to these biographers, Pythagoras's father was not born on the island, although he got naturalized there, but according to Iamblichus he was a native of the island. He is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant but his ancestry is disputed and unclear. His mother

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