Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration

Reviews / Votes

"The importance of [Luchte's] new book is based on his synthetic approach to the fragmentary traces of the Pythagorean movement. The symbol of transmigration is used as a hermeneutic key which gives access to the 'family similarity' (in the sense of Wittgenstein) of Pythagoras' seemingly heterogeneous teaching on mathematics, music, cosmology, ethics, theology, and the soul. He seeks to reconstruct Pythagoras' philosophy against the background of a 'magical' concept of thinking-practice which does not simply depict a 'given' reality, but considers philosophical concepts as part of a 'way of life' (Pierre Hadot) or as tools to be used in 'spiritual exercises' (Michel Foucault)." - Johannes Hoff, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK "Resisting mightily the lure of logical, mathematical, or scientific philosophy, Luchte offers a poetico-phenomenological exploration of the doctrine that souls migrate to another body when the old one dies, as an intimate philosophical interpretation or hermeneutics of tragic existence. His emphasis on the body and praxis in the Pythagorean bios precludes the link with Plato that so many philosophers long for. Among his topics are the emergence of mystic cults and the immortal soul, the alleged critique of Pythagoras by Parmenides, the Pythagorean divine between earth and sky, the Platonic rupture, and Plotinus and the ascent of the soul toward the one." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc. James Luchte writes about Pythagorus and the theory of transmigration with a wide range of cultural reference and a Socratic sense of the important of philosophy as an activity: this is a stimulating essay on the history of ideas.