SOURCE: C. J. De Vogel, in an introduction to Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism: An Interpretation of Neglected Evidence on the Philosopher Pythagoras, Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V., 1966, pp. 1-19.

In the following excerpt, De Vogel surveys modern criticism of Pythagoras, especially of his presumed dual role as a religious leader and as a scientist-philosopher.

1. the Problem

We have all grown up with the idea that very little was to be known about Pythagoras. From contemporary evidence, we saw, he appears as a kind of 'shaman'. And can a shaman be a man of science?

Whatever one might be inclined to say in reply to this question, this much was certain, that the texts in which something like a Pythagorean philosophy of number and numerical proportions appears date from the fourth century B.C., this applying most probably also to the Philolaus texts. Now, whatever may be said, the...