The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans (Thomas Taylor Series, volume XXX)

Volume XXX of the Thomas Taylor Series. The works included in this volume display not only the extraordinary grasp of Platonic-Pythagorean teaching which Taylor possessed, but also reveal the pathway which led to this intellectual prize. Thomas Taylor's first exploration of truth in his youth and early adulthood was through mathematics: it was only when he discovered that the early Greek writers of mathematics could only be properly understood when approached through Aristotle and Plato that he turned his attention to these philosophers, and those who followed them. It is doubtful whether there has been a better placed translator of Greek philosophy in the modern age to take up the task of unfolding the significance of number within Platonism. Whether or not there truly was the exhortation at the entrance of Plato's Academy, “Let none enter here, who do not geometrize,” the sentiment was most ably met in the person of Thomas Taylor. Of the works included in this volume the Theoretic A