Pythagoras, the Master Philolaus, Presocratic Follower by Carol Dunn

154 pp.  
6" x 9"
Lindisfarne Books
Paperback
Published:  December 2017 

• “Philolaus was essentially a Presocratic, but it is also my view that Philolaus was privy to some of Pythagoras’ secret doctrines, including the heliocentric theory and that of the harmony of the spheres, as well as most of his scientific, mathematical, geometric, musical, and astronomical discoveries. It is my further judgment that he plagiarized most of these features from Pythagoras and adapted them in order to reveal a new and marvelous heavenly creation...a quasi Presocratic creation.... This implies that Philolaus was not part of those disciples who kept faith with Pythagoras’ instruction that these doctrines were to be kept secret from the public.” —Carol Dunn

Pythagoras was one of the great geniuses of the West and yet, apart from his famous Pythagorean theorem, he is virtually unknown. If we rely on modern scholars and academics we find that his long-forgotten legacy is misunderstood and even distorted, and is therefore almost nonexistent. This new and provocative work from Carol Dunn (author of Plato's Dialogues: Path to Initiation) accomplishes two main objectives.

First, it shows that the early pioneers of modern physics, mainly Newton and Kepler, scientifically and mathematically confirm Pythagoras' discoveries of the sixth century BC—the heliocentric theory of our cosmos and the parallel theory regarding the Harmony of the Spheres. These are discoveries for which Pythagoras has received scant recognition by the Western philosophical tradition.

Second, the author argues against the proposition that the heliocentric theory was initiated not by Pythagoras but instead by his student Philolaus, who lived in the fifth century BC, and whose astronomical theory, according to Dunn, is not based on science.

Pythagoras, the Master is well researched and accessible, offering readers a firm basis to reexamine the importance of Pythagoras' work and whether he or Philolaus discovered these paradigm-changing astronomical theories two thousand years before Western science rediscovered them in the seventeenth century.

• CONTENTS:

1. Pythagoras, the Master
2. Pythagoras and Science
3. Philolaus: An Overview
4. Limiters and Unlimiteds
5. Number
6. Harmonia
7. Cosmology
8. The Heliocentric Theory
9. Harmony of the Spheres
10. Astronomy
11. Conclusions