Aristoxenus of Tarentum: The Pythagorean Precepts (How to Live a Pythagorean Life): An Edition of and Commentary on the Fragment

Description

The Pythagorean Precepts by Aristotle's pupil, Aristoxenus of Tarentum, present the principles of the Pythagorean way of life that Plato praised in the Republic. They are our best guide to what it meant to be a Pythagorean in the time of Plato and Aristotle. The Precepts have been neglected in modern scholarship and this is the first full edition and translation of and commentary on all the surviving fragments. The introduction provides an accessible overview of the ethical system of the Precepts and their place not only in the Pythagorean tradition but also in the history of Greek ethics as a whole. The Pythagoreans thought that human beings were by nature insolent and excessive and that they could only be saved from themselves if they followed a strictly structured way of life. The Precepts govern every aspect of life, such as procreation, abortion, child rearing, friendship, religion, desire and even diet.

Carl A. Huffman is Research Professor and Emeritus Professor of Classical Studies at DePauw University, Indiana. He is author of Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, Philosopher, and Mathematician King (Cambridge, 2005) and Philolaus of Croton: Pythagorean and Presocratic (Cambridge, 1993) and editor of A History of Pythagoreanism (Cambridge, 2014). He is author of the articles on Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism for the on-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and is one of the leading authorities in the world on ancient Pythagoreanism. He has been awarded fellowships by The Howard Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He also received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, which he held while a Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey.

'... this publication is therefore certainly a exegetical monument essential to all those who are interested in ancient or Aristoxenian Pythagoreanism.' Laurent Claive, Resenas Reviews