Abstract

“Aristoxenus’ _Pythagorean Precepts_: A Rational Pythagorean Ethics” examines neglected evidence for Pythagorean ethics and the Pythagorean way of life as it existed in the late fifth and early fourth century bce : the _Pythagorean Precepts_ by Aristoxenus of Tarentum. The most characteristic feature of the ethical system found in the _Pythagorean Precepts_ is its distrust of untutored human nature and its insistence on the necessity for supervision of all stages and aspects of human life. The emphasis on structure in life is so extreme as to value order even over correctness. The _Precepts_ represents a much more rational ethical system that the earlier Pythagorean _acusmata_ and suggests a level of development similar to that of the ethical fragments of Democritus.