Archytas | |
|---|---|
 Bust from Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum, once identified as Archytas, now thought to be Pythagoras[1] | |
| Born | 435/410 BC |
| Died | 360/350 BC |
| Era | Classical Greek philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Pythagoreanism |
Notable ideas | Doubling the cube Infinite universe |
Archytas (/ˈɑːrkɪtəs/; Greek: Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC[2]) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, music theorist,[3] statesman, and strategist from the ancient city of Taras (Tarentum) in Southern Italy. He was a scientist and philosopher affiliated with the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics and a friend of Plato.[4]
As a Pythagorean, Archytas believed that arithmetic (logistic), rather than geometry, provided the basis for satisfactory proofs,[5] and developed the most famous argument for the infinity of the universe in antiquity.[6]
- ^ Archita; Pitagora, Sito ufficiale del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, retrieved 25 September 2012
- ^ Philippa Lang, Science: Antiquity and its Legacy, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, p. 154.
- ^ Barbera, André (2001). "Archytas of Tarentum". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01183. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved 25 September 2021. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- ^ Debra Nails, The People of Plato, ISBN 1603844031, p. 44
- ^ Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times Oxford University Press, 1972 p. 49
- ^ Huffman, Carl (2020), "Archytas", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2023-10-28