Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written circa 360 BC The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.

Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates, Timaeus of Locri, Hermocrates, Critias. Some scholars have argued that it is not the Critias of the Thirty Tyrants who is appearing in this dialogue, but his grandfather, who is also named Critias.^[1]

1 Introduction
2 Synopsis
3 Later influence
4 See also
5 References
6 Footnotes
7 External links

[edit] Introduction

The dialogue takes place the day after Socrates described his ideal state. In Plato's works such a discussion occurs in the Republic. Socrates feels that his description of the ideal state wasn't sufficient for the purposes of entertainment and that "I would be glad to hear some account of it engaging in transactions with other states." (19b)

Hermocrates wishes to oblige Socrates and mentions that Critias knows just the account. (20b) Critias goes on to tell the story of Atlantis, and how Athens used to be an ideal state that went to war with Atlantis. (25a) Critias believes that he is getting ahead of himself, and mentions that Timaeus will tell part of the account from the origin of the universe to man. The history of Atlantis is postponed to Critias.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Nature of the physical world

Timaeus begins with a distinction between the physical world, which is the world of change, and the eternal world. Since, "a description of what is changeless, fixed and clearly intelligible will be changeless and fixed," (29a) it follows that a description of what changes and is likely, will also change and be just likely. In a description of the physical world, one "should not look for anything more than a likely story." (29b)

Timaeus suggests that since nothing "becomes or changes" without cause, then the cause of the universe must be a demiurge or God, a figure Timaeus refers to as the father of the universe. Using the eternal and perfect world of "forms" or ideals as a template, the demiurge set about creating our world, which formerly only existed in a state of chaos. Timaeus describes this chaos as a lack of homogenuity or balance, in which the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) were shapeless, mixed and in constant motion. The essential act of the creator is to bring order and clarity to this chaos and disorder. (Later in history the term "demiurge" became a term of vilification by Gnostics who purported that the demiurge was a fallen and ignorant god creating a flawed universe, but this was not how Plato was using the term.)

[edit] Purpose of the universe

Timaeus continues with an explanation of the creation of the universe, which is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman. God or his demiurge, being good, wanted there to be more good in the world. This notion is the kernel of Leibniz's optimism, and is an expression of the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing in the universe happens without a reason.

For Plato, the demiurge lacked the supernatural ability to create ex nihilo or out of nothing. This task would be left to the source or the one. The demiurge being an agent or emanation of the one. The demiurge was able to only organize the "ananke" (αναγκη). The demiurge is said to bring order out of chaos by imitating an unchanging and eternal model (paradigm). The ananke was the only other co-existent element or presence in Plato's cosmogony. This is a major point of contrast between the Greek notion of God and the Judeo-Christian notion. The God of the Hebrews created "out of nothing." He was the only eternal being.

[edit] The elements

Plato's Timaeus conjectures on the composition of the four elements which the ancient Greeks thought made up the universe: earth, water, air, and fire.

Plato conjectured each of these elements to be made up of a certain Platonic solid: the element of earth would be a cube, of air an octahedron, of water an icosahedron, and of fire a tetrahedron. Each of these perfect polyhedra would be in turn composed of triangles. Only certain triangular shapes would be allowed, such as the 30-60-90 and the 45-45-90 triangles. Each element could be broken down into its component triangles, which could then be put back together to form the other elements. Thus, the elements would be interconvertible, so this idea was a precursor to alchemy.

Plato's Timaeus posits the existence of a fifth element (corresponding to the fifth remaining Platonic solid, the dodecahedron) called quintessence, of which the cosmos itself is made.

Timaeus also discusses music theory: e.g. construction of the Pythagorean scale.

The last part of the dialogue addresses the creation of humans, including the soul, anatomy, perception, and transmigration of the soul.

[edit] Golden ratio

Plato waxed philosophically "For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean—then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one."^[2]

[edit] Later influence

The Timaeus was translated into Latin by Cicero and again by Calcidius. Cicero's version is lost, but Calcidius' survived and was one of the few works of classical natural philosophy available to Latin readers in the early Middle Ages. Thus it had a strong influence on medieval Neoplatonic cosmology and was, for instance, the subject of a commentary by William of Conches.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Derrida, Jacques [1993] (1995). On the Name. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804725551.
Martin, Thomas Henry [1841] (1981). Études sur le Timée de Platon. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin.
Sallis, John (1999). Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's "Timaeus". Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253213088.
Taylor, Alfred E. (1928). A commentary on Plato's Timaeus. Oxford: Clarendon.

[edit] Footnotes

^ See Burnet, John (1914). Greek Philosophy, Part 1: Thales to Plato. London: Macmillan, p. 328 — Taylor, AE (1928). A commentary on Plato's Timaeus. Oxford: Clarendon, p. 23.
^ Plato (360 BCE). Timaeus (HTML). The Internet Classics Archive. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.