Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus (dialogue)

"Timaeus" (Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) 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. [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.]



Hermocrates wishes to oblige Socrates and mentions that Critias knows just the account (20b) to do so. Critias proceeds to tell the story of Atlantis, and how Athens used to be an ideal state that subsequently waged war against 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". The main content of the dialogue, the exposition by Timaeus, follows.

ynopsis of Timaeus' account

Nature of the physical world



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. And since the universe is fair, the demiurge must have looked to the eternal model to make it, and not to the perishable one (29a). Hence, using the eternal and perfect world of "forms" or ideals as a template, he set about creating our world, which formerly only existed in a state of disorder.

Purpose of the universe

Timaeus continues with an explanation of the creation of the universe, which he ascribes to the handiwork of a divine Craftsman. The demiurge, being good, wanted there to be as much good as was the world. For Plato, the demiurge lacked the supernatural ability to create "ex nihilo" or out of nothing. Not being omnipotent the demiurge was able to only organize to a limited extent the "ananke" (αναγκη) or necessity. The demiurge is said to bring order out of substance 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 Plato's explanation of the origin of the world and the Bible account of creation (in its twelfth-century interpretation) in which God created from nothing and was the only eternal being.


Properties of the universe

Timaeus describes the substance as a lack of homogeneity or balance, in which the four elements (earth, air, fire and water&mdash;see Platonic solids) were shapeless, mixed and in constant motion. Considering that order is favourable over disorder, the essential act of the creator was to bring order and clarity to this substance. Therefore, all the properties of the world are to be explained by the demiurge's choice of what is fair and good; or, the idea of a dichotomy between good and evil.


Then, since the part is imperfect compared to the whole, the world had to be one and only. Therefore, the demiurge did not create several worlds, but "one and unique" world (31b).


As for the figure, the demiurge created the world in the geometric form of a "globe". Indeed, the round figure is the most perfect one, because it comprehends or averages all the other figures and it is the most omnimorphic of all figures: "he [the demiurge] considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike" (33b).

The creator assigned then to the world a rotatory or "circular movement", which is the "most appropriate to mind and intelligence" on account of its being the most uniform (34a).


The creation of the soul of the world

Timaeus then explains how the soul of the world was created. The demiurge combined three elements: Sameness (indivisible and unchangeable, also called Being), Difference (divisible and changing, also called Change), and Existence, a reality which is intermediate to the first two (otherwise known as Becoming). One substance resulted, which he divided following precise mathematical proportions. He then cut the compound lengthways, fixed the resulting two bands in their middle, like in the letter Χ (chi), and connected them at their ends, to have two crossing circles. The demiurge imparted them a circular movement on their axis: the outer circle was assigned Sameness and turned horizontally to the right, while the inner circle was assigned to Difference and turned diagonally and to the left (34c-36c).




The elements

The term "elements" ("stoicheia") was first used by the Greek philosopher Plato in about 360 BC, in his dialogue Timaeus, which includes a discussion of the composition of inorganic and organic bodies and is a rudimentary treatise on chemistry. Plato assumed that the minute particle of each element had a special geometric shape: tetrahedron (fire), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and cube (earth).

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 [ [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Tim.+53c Plato, Timaeus, 53c] ] . 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.

Golden ratio

"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"; thereby he implies the aesthetically perfect proportion known as Golden ratio or Golden mean. (31c - 32a).

Later influence

The "Timaeus" was translated into Latin by Cicero and again by Calcidius. Cicero's version can be found at [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero_timaeus.html Forum Romanum] ; 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 commented particularly by 12th century Christian philosophers of the Chartres School, such as Thierry of Chartres and William of Conches, who, following the official Christian doctrine, refused the original idea of eternal matter co-existing with God and introduced the creation ex nihilo. [cite book | author=Stiefel, Tina | title=The Intellectual Revolution in Twelfth Century Europe | publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York | year=1985 | id=ISBN 0-312-41892-2 ]

ee also

* Johannes Kepler
* Leibniz
* Plotinus
* Esoteric cosmology
* Religious cosmology
* Creation myth
* Teleological argument


*cite book |author=Cornford, Francis Macdonald |authorlink= |title=Plato's Cosmology: the Timaeus of Plato, Translated with a Running Commentary |origdate= |origyear=1935 |year=1997 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company, Inc |location=Indianapolis |id=ISBN 0-87220-386-7
*cite book |author=Derrida, Jacques |authorlink= |title=On the Name |origdate= |origyear=1993 |year=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |id=ISBN 0-8047-2555-1
*cite book |last=Martin |first=Thomas Henry |authorlink= |title=Études sur le Timée de Platon |origdate= |origyear=1841 |year=1981 |publisher=Librairie philosophique J. Vrin |location=Paris |id=
*cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alfred E. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=A commentary on Plato's Timaeus |year=1928 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |id=
* K. Sarah-Jane Murray, "From Plato to Lancelot: A Preface to Chretien de Troyes," Syracuse University Press, 2008. ISBN-10 081563160X


External links

* [http://timaeus.baylor.edu/ Digby 23 Project at Baylor University]
*Plato's "Timaeus" Translated by Benjamin Jowett:
**Project Gutenberg [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1572 edition] (includes Jowett's introduction)
**York University [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Plato/Timaeus edition]
** [http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rac101/concord/texts/timaeus/ Jowett text] with all words linked and concordance
* [http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath096.htm MathPages - Kevin Brown's discussion of Plato's "Timaeus"]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-timaeus/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry]
* [http://platogeek.com/work/30 Timaeus Bibliography]

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