Sobre o Pitágoras histórico

Pelos critérios de Roberto Takata, as evidências de que Pitágoras realmente existiu são mais fracas do que as da existência de Jesus.

Critérios de Takata:

1. Se existem mitos sobre a vida de um personagem, isso logicamente enfraquece a probabilidade de que tal personagem existiu:

a) Pitágoras (Jesus) foi tido como seus seguidores como filho de Apolo (de Yavhe) , e tido como divino.

b) É atribuido a Pitágoras (Jesus) vários milagres, tais como fazer curas, viajar pelo tempo e espaço, brilhar com uma luz sobrenatural e falar com animais e plantas.

2. Se as fontes sobre o personagem são posteriores à sua morte, isso enfraquece a probabilidade de que tal personagem existiu:

A primeira referência a Pitágoras é de Xenophanes (570-475 A.C.). Supondo que Xenophanes escreveu sobre Pitágoras aos 30 anos, isso significa que a primeira referência (extremamente fragmentária) sobre Pitágoras ocorre 95 anos após a suposta morte desse suposto filósofo grego. Em comparação, as primeira referências a Jesus ocorrem 25 anos após sua suposta morte. Logo, Pitágoras é menos provável que Jesus, segundo Takata.

3. Se o suposto personagem histórico ensinou por via oral em vez de deixar escritos, sua existência histórica fica logicamente enfraquecida.

No texts by Pythagoras are known to have survived, although forgeries under his name — a few of which remain extant — did circulate in antiquity. Critical ancient sources like Aristotleand Aristoxenus cast doubt on these writings. Ancient Pythagoreans usually quoted their master's doctrines with the phrase autos ephe ("he himself said") — emphasizing the essentially oral nature of his teaching.

4. Se ao personagem supostamente histórico está associada uma seita religiosa que tinha interesses em mitificar seu suposto fundador, então o implica logicamente que a existencia desse fundador se torna menos provável.

Por todos os critérios, o Pitagorismo é uma religião, logo, Pitágoras possivelmente não existiu.

5. Se existem movimentos pseudocientíficos modernos que veneram o suposto personagem histórico, isso implica logicamente que a probabilidade da existência do personagem diminua.

Pitágoras (e Jesus) são reverenciados pela New Age como profetas, logo é menos provável que realmente tenham existido.

6. Dado que existem pessoas que afirmam terem visto o ET de Varginha, disso decorre logicamente que argumentos relacionados com a rede social do suposto personagem não têm valor. Takata afirma que as evidências a favor da existência de Pedro e Tiago são menores que as evidências a favor da existência de Jesus. Mas não esclarece se ele aceita a historicidade da epistolas Paulina de Gálatas (50 E.C.) , onde Paulo afirma que Pedro se comportou de forma hipócrita ao se afastar dos cristãos gentios quando cristãos judeus, enviados por Tiago (suposto irmão do suposto Jesus) chegaram em Antioquia.  Ou seja, Takata parece afirmar que a epistóla aos Galatas, universalmente aceita pelos historiadores, é na verdade falsa, ou pelo menos que esse trecho referente a Pedro é. 

Isso contrasta fortemente com os critérios dos scholars, em especial ao critério do embaraçamento: se um trecho contém afirmações que seriam embaraçosas para o Cristianismo tardio, a probabilidade de tal trecho ser original aumenta. Como Pedro foi, tardiamente,  colocado como primeiro papa, é muito improvável que copistas do Catolicismo Romano tivessem redigido ou interpolado este texto, que chama Pedro de hipócrita.

Dado as poucas e fracas evidências da existência real de Pitágoras, a lógica de Takata implica que as referências ao mesmo deveriam ser retiradas dos livros de ciência e livros textos, e que os professores e blogueiros de ciência não deveriam falar de Pitágoras, pois o Pitágoras histórico, mesmo que tenha existido, é hoje basicamente um mito, e não sabemos nada de concreto e confiável sobre ele.

O problema que tenho em relação aos critérios de historicidade de Takata (que não são os dos historiadores profissionais) é que tais implicações lógicas me parecem falaciosas, ou seja, são non sequitor lógicos.  Gostaria que Takata me esclarecesse sobre esse ponto e, dado que ele é um importante representante do movimento cético (ou seja, um cético respeitável segundo Kentaro Mori), caso tenha cometido um erro de avaliação, ele faça uma retratação ou redija uma coluna "Erramos" (algo que ele sempre pede que os jornalistas façam quando pegos por seu detetor automático de falácias).

Foto: Busto de Pitágoras no Museu do Vaticano. Seria esse busto uma parte da conspiracão do Vaticano, que condenou o livro de Copérnico por Pitagorismo?

Da Wikipedia:

Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: Ὁ Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, O Pythagoras o Samios, "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply Ὁ Πυθαγόρας; c. 570-c. 495 BC^[1]) was an Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of our information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, thus very little reliable information is known about him. 

Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, and he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can say little with confidence about his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality is unknown. 

Biographical sources

Accurate facts about the life of Pythagoras are so few, and most information concerning him is of so late a date, and so untrustworthy, that it is impossible to provide more than a vague outline of his life. The lack of information by contemporary writers, together with the secrecy which surrounded the Pythagorean brotherhood, meant that invention took the place of facts. The stories which were created were eagerly sought by the Neoplatonist writers who provide most of the details about Pythagoras, but who were uncritical concerning anything which related to the gods or which was considered divine.^[3]

Thus many myths were created – such as that Apollo was his father; that Pythagoras gleamed with a supernaturalbrightness; that he had a golden thigh; that Abaris came flying to him on a golden arrow; that he was seen in different places at one and the same time.^[4] With the exception of a few remarks by Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and Isocrates, we are mainly dependent on Diogenes Laërtius, Porphyry, and Iamblichus for the biographical details. Aristotle had written a separate work on the Pythagoreans, which unfortunately has not survived.^[5] His disciples Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, and Heraclides Ponticus had written on the same subject. These writers, late as they are, were among the best sources from whom Porphyry and Iamblichus drew, besides the legendary accounts and their own inventions. Hence historians are often reduced to considering the statements based on their inherent probability, but even then, if all the credible stories concerning Pythagoras were supposed true, his range of activity would be impossibly vast.^[6]

There is little direct evidence as to the kind and amount of knowledge which Pythagoras acquired, or as to his definite philosophical views. Everything of the kind mentioned by Plato and Aristotle is attributed not to Pythagoras, but to the Pythagoreans. Heraclitus stated that he was a man of extensive learning;^[22] and Xenophanes claimed that he believed in the transmigration of souls.^[23] Xenophanes mentions the story of his interceding on behalf of a dog that was being beaten, professing to recognise in its cries the voice of a departed friend. Pythagoras is supposed to have claimed that he had been Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, in the Trojan war, as well as various other characters, a tradesman, a courtesan, etc.^[24]

Many mathematical and scientific discoveries were attributed to Pythagoras, including his famous theorem,^[25] as well as discoveries in the field of music,^[26] astronomy,^[27] and medicine.^[28] But it was the religious element which made the profoundest impression upon his contemporaries. Thus the people of Croton were supposed to have identified him with the Hyperborean Apollo,^[29] and he was said to have practised divination and prophecy.^[30] In the visits to various places in Greece - Delos, Sparta, Phlius, Crete, etc. which are ascribed to him, he usually appears either in his religious or priestly guise, or else as a law giver.^[31]

Writings

No texts by Pythagoras are known to have survived, although forgeries under his name — a few of which remain extant — did circulate in antiquity. Critical ancient sources like Aristotle and Aristoxenus cast doubt on these writings. Ancient Pythagoreans usually quoted their master's doctrines with the phrase autos ephe ("he himself said") — emphasizing the essentially oral nature of his teaching.

Because of the secretive nature of his school and the custom of its students to attribute everything to their teacher, there is no evidence that Pythagoras himself worked on or proved this theorem. For that matter, there is no evidence that he worked on any mathematical or meta-mathematical problems. Some attribute it as a carefully constructed myth by followers of Plato over two centuries after the death of Pythagoras, mainly to bolster the case for Platonic meta-physics, which resonate well with the ideas they attributed to Pythagoras. This attribution has stuck, down the centuries up to modern times.^[43] The earliest known mention of Pythagoras's name in connection with the theorem occurred five centuries after his death, in the writings of Cicero and Plutarch.

Religion and science

Pythagoras’ religious and scientific views were, in his opinion, inseparably interconnected. Religiously, Pythagoras was a believer of metempsychosis. He believed in transmigration, or the reincarnation of the soul again and again into the bodies of humans, animals, or vegetables until it became moral. His ideas of reincarnation were influenced by ancient Greek religion. Heraclides Ponticus reports the story that Pythagoras claimed that he had lived four lives that he could remember in detail,^[45] and, according to Xenophanes, Pythagoras heard the cry of his dead friend in the bark of a dog.^[46]

[edit]Lore

Pythagoras became the subject of elaborate legends surrounding his historic persona. Aristotle described Pythagoras as a wonder-worker and somewhat of a supernatural figure, attributing to him such aspects as a golden thigh, which was a sign of divinity. According to Aristotle and others' accounts, some ancients believed that he had the ability to travel through space and time, and to communicate with animals and plants.^[47] An extract from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable's entry entitled "Golden Thigh":

Pythagoras is said to have had a golden thigh, which he showed to Abaris, the Hyperborean priest, and exhibited in the Olympic games.^[48]

Another legend describes his writing on the moon:

Pythagoras asserted he could write on the moon. His plan of operation was to write on a looking-glass in blood, and place it opposite the moon, when the inscription would appear photographed or reflected on the moon's disc.^[49]

Influence on esoteric groups

Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, both of which were occult groups dedicated to the study of mathematics and both of which claimed to have evolved out of the Pythagorean brotherhood.^{[citation needed]} The mystical and occult qualities of Pythagorean mathematics are discussed in a chapter of Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages entitled "Pythagorean Mathematics".

Pythagorean theory was tremendously influential on later numerology, which was extremely popular throughout the Middle East in the ancient world. The 8th-century Muslim alchemistJabir ibn Hayyan grounded his work in an elaborate numerology greatly influenced by Pythagorean theory.^{[citation needed]} Today, Pythagoras is revered as a prophet by the Ahl al-Tawhidor Druze faith along with his fellow Greek, Plato.