Work · Ancient Greek
Timaeus
A demiurge shapes the cosmos after eternal models.
Introduction
The dialogue presents itself as a continuation of a conversation about the ideal state; after Critias tells the story of Atlantis, the astronomer Timaeus of Locri delivers a long, almost uninterrupted speech on the origin of the cosmos. He calls it only a “likely account”. A divine craftsman (demiurge) shapes the world after eternal models, gives it a world soul and builds the four elements from triangles that form regular solids. A “receptacle” (chōra) provides the space in which things come to be. Through the partial Latin translation of Calcidius (4th century CE), the Timaeus was the only Platonic dialogue widely read in the Latin Middle Ages.
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Connections
Builds on
- On Naturec. 475 BCE · Parmenides
Taken up in
- On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)c. 30 · Philo of Alexandria
- Enneadsc. 270 · Plotinus
- The Consolation of Philosophyc. 524 · Boethius
- Against Proclus on the Eternity of the Worldc. 529 · John Philoponus
- Process and Reality1929 · Alfred North Whitehead
Criticized in
- Physicsc. 350 BCE · Aristotle
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