Flourished (Italy), fourth century BCE
Archytas is called the last of the Pythagoreans. He was a student of Philolaus , friend of Plato , and, according to some sources, teacher of Eudoxus . Archytas argued that things cannot exist independently of place. Consequently, if one travels to the supposed “edge” of the Universe, and there stretches out both arms, only one arm would continue to exist. As this seemed absurd, Archytas concluded that the premise is false and that the Universe must be unbounded. A crater on the Moon is named for Archytas.
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Huffman, Carl (2005). Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, Philosopher and Mathematician King. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Hockey, T. (2014). Archytas of Tarentum. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_68
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