Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/292

278 a man who is seeking to find a way of release from the burden of this life. It is probable that Philolaos spoke of the body (σῶμα) as the tomb (σῆμα) of the soul. We seem to be justified, then, in holding that he taught the old Pythagorean religious doctrine in some form, and that he laid special stress on knowledge as a means of release. That is the impression we get from Plato, who is far the best authority we have.

We know further that Philolaos wrote on "numbers"; for Speusippos followed him in the account he gave of the Pythagorean theories on that subject. It is probable that he busied himself mainly with arithmetic, and we can hardly doubt that his geometry was of the primitive type described in an earlier chapter. Eurytos was his disciple, and we have seen (§ 47) that his views were still very crude.

We also know now that Philolaos wrote on medicine, and that, while apparently influenced by the theories of the Sicilian school, he opposed them from the Pythagorean standpoint. In particular, he said that our bodies were composed only of the warm, and did not participate in the