Continuum Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration: Wandering Souls (Continuum Studies in Ancient Philosophy): 17

Product Description This is a highly original monograph that explores the ways in which the concept of transmigration represents the fundamental meaning of Pythagorean thought. The mythical narrative of transmigration tells the story of myriad wandering souls, each migrating from body to body along a path of recurrence amid the becoming of the All. In this highly original study, James Luchte explores the ways in which the concept of transmigration is a central motif in Pythagoras' philosophy, representing its fundamental meaning. Luchte argues that the many strands of the tale of transmigration come together in the Pythagorean philosophical movement, revealing a unity in which, for Pythagoreans, existence and eschatology are separated only by forgetfulness. Such an interpretation that seeks to retrieve the unity of Pythagorean thought goes against the grain of a long-standing tradition of interpretation that projects upon Pythagoras the segregation of 'mysticism' and 'science'. Luchte lays out an alternative interpretation of Pythagorean philosophy as magical in the sense that it orchestrates a holistic harmonization of theoria and praxis and through this reading discloses the radical character of Pythagorean philosophy. Review James Luchte writes about Pythagoras and the theory of transmigration with a wide range of cultural reference and a Socratic sense of the important of philosophy as an activity: this is a stimulating essay on the history of ideas. --The Anglo-Hellenic Review About the Author James Luchte is Lecturer in European Philosophy at the University of Wales, Lampeter, UK.