Pythagoras and The Underground Man

Throughout Notes from the Underground, the underground man criticizes utilitarianism and their efforts to explain everything through reasons and numbers. He explains how he hates the concept of 2x2=4, as it represents this idea. This made me think of how one Ancient Greek philosopher, Pythagorean, believed that the world was made up of numbers. This may seem pretty ridiculous, but he had a pretty large following in Ancient Greece. He believed that the number 1 was the origin of all things, and that the number 2 represent matter. He believed that the number three was the best of all possible numbers, because it contained the beginning, middle, and end, and was the smallest number needed to make a triangle. He also believed that odd numbers were masculine and even numbers were feminine. The number four represents the four elements and seasons. His theories are pretty insane and confusing at some points, but pretty interesting to think about.