Abstract

Starting from the necessity to understand Pythagoreanism as an historiographical category in order to resist the various reductionist attempts to assimilate it to only one side of the dichotomy between "bios" and "theoria", I will give a brief account of the postulation of a clear-cut distinction between ancient Pythagoreanism and Neopythagoreanism. I will argue, on the contrary, for a necessary historical continuity between the two, with an important consequence for the history of Pythagorean philosophy: since the beginning of the Pythagorean tradition, "bios" and "theoria" have remained fundamentally inseparable. One of the most relevant features of Pythagoreanism, the communitarian way of life, will be examined as an example of how we should properly address Pythagorean traditions.