Okay Pythagoras, I See Where You're Coming From

Here's my take on Pythagoras (Pyth). I don't know if I fully grasp his idea that Number is the arche, but I agree with the theory that everything in the world involves, and can be explained by, numbers. When reading about Pyth I was reminded of a lab I did in my high school physics class. Each team had to roll a marble down an incline, off the edge of the table, and into a cup. The catch was we got everything but the marble to work with. We had to first gather all of the other materials, take a few measurements, make a few calculations, and then place our cup where we thought the marble would land. Once we requested the marble from our professor, we had three chances to make it into the cup. The crazy thing is it actually worked. Every team's marble either made it into the cup or at least hit the rim. When reflecting on the assignment, I suddenly realized that almost everything (if not, everything) in the world could be calculated if you knew how to do it. I think the realization Pyth made was similar to my own, though he took the theory a little further than I did. I'm hesitant to say Number is the under lining, unchanging mover of our world, but I can see why Pyth wouldn't be.

Consider this for a moment. Everything is measurable by numbers (as my professor showed in the experiment). But what are numbers? They're symbols we made up to count things. Then again, the symbols themselves are the only part of numbers that's human made. Even before we had the symbols "1" and "2" we knew if you took a pencil and placed it next to another pencil the result was a larger group of pencils. This idea can be expanded. Even before my class knew how to measure where a marble rolled down an incline would land, the calculation was possible. The marble was always going to land in the same spot. Since the beginning of the universe, that marble has been subject to the laws of gravity, friction, energy, and whatever else. Everything on Earth operates under these laws and measurements and always has. That's how we predict the weather, build bridges, fly... It's easy to see how Pyth came to the conclusion that everything comes from Number. It's always been here. We've always been operating by it. How can it not be the arche?

Here's my answer. To me, the ruling force can't be Number itself. Numbers are not an active thing, they just are. Number may be something the universe acts within, but it doesn't cause the universe to act. The arche needs to be something actively directing and moving the universe. That's at least how I define it. I say the arche made Number and then used it to design the universe. But I see where Pythagoras was coming from.