A Pythagorean Approach to the Universe

June 25, 2008

Pythagoras is under fire. His importance as a mathematician-philosopher is diminishing. He did not invent the notion of mathematical proof. Nor did he discover the theorem that bears his name.

"He may have noted a link between some harmonic intervals in the music of his time and certain simple numerical ratios," Anthony Gottlieb notes. "But there is no reason to think that he was the first to do so." Gottlieb's remarks appear in his Wall Street Journal review of the new book The Music of Pythagoras: How an Ancient Brotherhood Cracked the Code of the Universe and Lit the Path from Antiquity to Outer Space by Kitty Ferguson.

Nonetheless, Ferguson argues, Pythagorean ideals played an important role in Western science before Isaac Newton, especially in the development of astronomy.

Ferguson's theme is that Pythagoras remains relevant because he and his followers were responsible for spreading the idea that numbers reveal basic patterns in and of an ordered world. This notion influenced, for example, Johannes Kepler, the famous 17th-century astronomer who sought mathematical ways of representing the predictable motions of heavenly bodies.

Ferguson does, however, concede that there are modern threats to the Pythagorean concept of an orderly universe, arising from the unpredictability and undecidability inherent in chaos theory, set theory, quantum mechanics, and other fields.

Gottlieb describes Ferguson's book as "an engaging survey," but he disagrees with her on the threat posed by modern science and mathematics to Pythagorean ideals.

"Each of these fields has added to our rational understanding of the world and has done so by means of mathematics," Gottlieb argues. "The universe may not be as simple as some early Greek mathematicians imagined it to be, but it is proving ever more comprehensible by the day."

Source: Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2008.