The Monad

Surely it is close to impossible to determine with any certainty what Pythagoras's view of number was. What we can be reasonably sure of is that Pythagoras formed figures from small spherical objects in order to determine the properties possessed by specific numbers. Another thing is clear, were we to examine numbers of spheres in the same manner as he, we are almost certain to receive the same results.

But let us suppose that the explanation of numbers which has come to us was not based on experimentation, but rather formed upon the pillar of abstraction. In such a case the essence of number is derived out of airy ideals. Which is not to say that the results are false, simply that they are not open to verification. Some aspects of the teaching are unarguably correct, odd and even numbers, for example. What is open to question is the sexing of odd numbers as male and even numbers as female. Such a treatment might appear logical on paper, but when one examines structures formed from the appropriate number of spheres its absurdity becomes all too apparent. The question is one of what took precedence, actual properties or metaphysical concepts.

Let us examine One. The Monad. The source of all numbers. Good, desirable, essential, indivisible.
And the first principle of numbers is in substance the first monad, which is a male monad, begetting as a father all other numbers.

Ok, One is the father of all numbers, it is good, desirable, essential and indivisible.

Who can argue with that? Who would dare to question such a self-evident definition of One?

Consider a single sphere suspended in a limitless void. The sphere is alone and the emptiness surrounding it is absolute. Note that the sphere cannot be said to be in motion since motion is a relative term. Without another object to move relative to motion cannot exist. So this sphere is frozen.

Imagine that this sphere is an omnivorous ball of protoplasm, the blob, if you will. It is homogenous, it is one. More importantly, it is dormant. It isn't hunting, it isn't perceiving, it simply is. If this sphere were an eye it would be blind as there is nothing to see. It would not possess awareness there is nothing for it to be aware of.

To be One is to be either asleep or a corpse.