Vat.lat.5953

...joined together: and offering two harmonies.

Philosophy

Pythagoras says that philosophy is the appetite and the love for wisdom. Wisdom, moreover, is the knowledge of the truth in beings. Beings, however, are divided into those that are immaterial and eternal—and solely active in their efficacy—such as those things that are incorporeal and exist in themselves; or the remaining beings which are called corporeal and material according to their participation in those [eternal] things. These are both generative and corruptible, and truly never being Ficino is distinguishing between "Being" (unchanging reality) and "Becoming" (the physical world which is always changing and therefore never "is" in a permanent sense).. Wisdom, indeed, is the knowledge of primary beings, not of the nature? original Greek: ἀποφύσεως (apophyseos), likely referring to the growth or nature of transitory things of non-beings. For corporeal things are not knowable, since they are infinite and entirely changeable; from this he concludes that philosophy is the love of perceiving the truth of things that are incorporeal and eternal. Pythagoras often used to say that the beginning is the half of the whole A famous Greek proverb (arche hemisu pantos) emphasizing that starting a task is the most difficult and significant part..

The Pythagoreans were most dedicated to medicine, and especially in that branch which heals by means of diet rather than through drugs. They also used verbal incantations for healing and drew these from the poems of Homer and Hesiod. It is wonderful with how much zeal they exercised the memory: in this way, they would strive in the evening to recall whatever they had done that day. They would say where they had gone, and in order, what [happened] first and what [happened] after. Then, after some time, when they had accustomed their memory to this, they extended it further to meditate not only on what happened on that day, but on the previous day. Then on the three days [prior]. Then what they had done?, and through music they cured certain diseases of the body? and the passions of the soul.

Wisdom

Medicine

Philosophy

On memory

The principle of justice, according to Pythagoras, is totality and equality: and that all people should harmonize as closely as possible into one body and one soul; and that what is "ours" and what is "another's" should sound in the same unison. Just as Plato, learning from the Pythagoreans, testifies: a person will act most in this way if they expel all private property and increase common [property], until...