Chapter 8 - Perictione, Mother of Metaphysics

Summary

Whilst most of the Pseudo-Pythagorean writings ascribed to female authors discuss women-related topics and focus on ethical questions, the treatise titled On Wisdom and ascribed to Perictione, the mother of Plato, is unique for at least two reasons: first, it concerns humankind, rather than women specifically, and second, it has an explicit metaphysical and epistemological focus. In the available fragments, Perictione makes two key statements: first, the purpose and function of a human being is the contemplation of the nature of all things. Second, wisdom is the highest-ranked human activity, for it enables us to grasp all kinds of things that are and brings us closer to the divine. The purpose of this chapter is to reconstruct the philosophical arguments of Perictione’s On Wisdom with the aim of highlighting the contributions this treatise makes to the history of metaphysics. The paper shows that the texts ascribed to Pythagorean women go well beyond female ethics, all the way to contemplating “all the things that are.”