Aristotle's Sources for Pythagorean Doctrine

IN ALL HIS WRITINGS, and in particular in the Metaphysics, Aristotle makes frequent, clear, and specific statements about Pythagorean doctrine. He makes a practice of comparing and contrasting it with Platonic doctrine. In at least three instances he alludes to a development in teachings within the Pythagorean school. We know further that he wrote preliminary monographs, of which only fragments remain, on the Pythagoreans and on Archytas. In its extent the information he gives us concerning the Pythagoreans is second only to that concerning the Platonists. The very abundance of these references raises in our minds insistent questions. Who were the Pythagoreans of whom Aristotle speaks? How did he obtain the information he possesses? Were his sources oral or written or both? How trustworthy were they? These are the questions I here propose to discuss. The further question-how reliable and consistent is his account-is a wider and a basic problem of Aristotelian method, familiar to all inquirers and subsequent to the problems discussed here. If however he is giving an account of contemporary teaching to which access is easy, then it seems a reasonable conclusion that he is interpreting for an intelligent and informed public, and that the extent to which he can willingly or unwillingly distort is limited. Any such conclusion however will remain a by-product of our inquiry.' As for Pythagoras himself, Aristotle makes two and only two references to him in the published works. The first of these is in the Rhetoric (1398b 14), the second in the Metaphysics (986a 30), in a reference probably interpolated. This silence of Aristotle's is the more remarkable because we know from the fragments (Ross, Fr. Sel. pp. 130-132) that he wrote a monograph on the Pythagoreans in which the tradition, or legend, about Pythagoras was set forth in some detail. We can only surmise that Aristotle felt this tradition to provide no trustworthy evidence

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