SEP and MacTutor state that almost no contemporaneous autograph of Pythagoras survives
Stanford’s Pythagoras entry and St Andrews MacTutor state that later lives, not letters or a household register, are what remain. In the causal graph this event weakens the driver Personal-Data Protection.
Read the full account
Stanford’s Pythagoras entry and St Andrews MacTutor state that later lives, not letters or a household register, are what remain. Opacity of a famous sage is the path: later states cannot audit a diary because there is none.
Context
High confidence on the gap. This is not GDPR. It forbids a fake 570 BCE birth Fact on this page.
Pythagoras is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.
Why it matters
Do write the gap.
Do write the gap.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Pythagoras
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.22 · verified
Named sage as heading of later school reports. Iamblichus, Euclid’s editors, and later math teachers publish the instrument.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactSEP and MacTutor state that almost no contemporaneous autograph of Pythagoras survives
- weakensDriverPersonal-Data Protection
impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 1 January 1999 · verified
Do write the gap.
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.MacTutor — Pythagoras of SamosUniversity of St Andrews · High credibility · verified
- 2.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — PythagorasStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · High credibility · verified
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorPythagoras
- contributed toFactSEP and MacTutor state that almost no contemporaneous autograph of Pythagoras survives
- weakensDriverPersonal-Data Protection
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). SEP and MacTutor state that almost no contemporaneous autograph of Pythagoras survives. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/py-no-autograph-gap
https://factrail.ai/facts/py-no-autograph-gap
Accessed 16 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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