The Early Pythagoreans and the Political Development of Greece in the 6th–4th Centuries BCE

The paper deals with the question of the socio-historical conditionality of the political ideas of the early Pythagoreans. It is established that the philosophy of the early Pythagoreans reflected such traditional values of the polis as political activity, patriotism, collectivism. The weak manifestation of individualism among the Pythagoreans testifies to the existence in their worldview of an indissoluble connection between the polis and the citizen. The political ideas and way of life of the Pythagoreans were conditioned by the flourishing of the polis system in the 6th–4th centuries BCE. The desire of the Pythagoreans for political stability and moderation was associated with the idea of a great danger emanating from anarchy and tyranny. The fear of lawlessness contributed to the formation of Pythagoras and his followers’ idea of the importance of political loyalty. It was also found that in the political preferences of the early Pythagoreans manifested two tendencies — aristocratic and democratic. The aristocratic tendency manifested itself in the elitist nature of Pythagorean teaching, in adherence to aristocratic virtues and distrust of democratic practices. The democratic tendency was associated with the early Pythagoreans’ idea of equality as the basis of laws, justice and friendship. It was shown that the changes in the correlation of these tendencies in Pythagoreanism were also conditioned to the socio-historical development of Greece in the late archaic and classical periods. The predominance of the aristocratic tendency among Pythagoras and his disciples was associated with the dominance of the aristocracy in the Greek poleis of the 6th century BCE. The strengthening of the democratic tendency in the views of Archytas and, possibly, Lysis was due to the rapid development of democracy in the 5th–4th centuries BCE.