Pythagoras and Plato both believed in reincarnation
I just learned that both Pythagoras and Plato, ancient Greek philosophers, believed in reincarnation.
Indeed, according to an excerpt from the What’s Life after Death website, Pythagoras could remember some of his past lives. Pythagoras, who lived from 575 B.C.E. to 495 B.C.E., is especially remembered for the Pythagorean Theorum which says that the square on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares on the other sides for a triangle containing a right angle (90 degree angle).
Among the ancient Greek philosophers, Socrates, Pythagoras and Plato are considered among those who made the subject of rebirth and life after death a steady part of their teachings. They even claim to have gone through a near death experience. In his last days, Socrates said, “I firmly believe that there is life after death” and that “Life emerges from death itself”. Pythagoras claimed with full confidence that he had memories of his previous birth and Plato described the topic of rebirths and previous births in a number of his works. Various religions, like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc, despite being practiced by different people in different geographical areas accept the existence of life after death in one way or the other. Most of these religions and philosophers relate rebirth with the deeds of a person in his previous birth. A person doing good for others and attaining knowledge is considered to take birth as a better species and finally gets free from the cycle of life and death whereas a person who is involved in wrongdoings and sinful activities, the one who leads a selfish life getting immersed in physical desire and material things takes birth again and again in this mortal world.
