Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration

James Luchte is Lecturer of Philosophy and Programme Co-ordinator of the MA in European Philosophy at the University of Wales, Trinity St. David, in Wales. His other publications include The Peacock and the Buffalo: The Poetry of Nietzsche (translator), Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration, Heidegger's Early Philosophy: The Phenomenology of Ecstatic Temporality, 1Vietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise (editor) and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Reader's guide (all Continuum). He has also published numerous articles on various topics in European Philosophy.

• Introduction: The Poetic Topos of the Doctrine of Transmigration; 1. Genealogy of the Doctrine of Transmigration; 2. Beyond Mysticism and Science: Symbolism and Philosophical Magic; 3. The Emergence of Mystic Cults and the Immortal Soul; 4. Philolaus and the Question of Pythagorean Harmony; 5. The Alleged Critique of Pythagoras by Parmenides; 6. Between the Earth and the Sky: On the Pythagorean Divine; 7. The Pythagorean Bios and the Doctrine of Transmigration; 8. The Platonic Rupture: Writing and Difference; 9. Plotinus: The Ascent of the Soul toward the One; 10. Plotinus as Neoplatonic Mystic: Letter to Flaccus; Epilogue: The Fate of the Doctrine of Transmigration; Bibliography; Index.

"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. The Anglo-Hellenic Review