About this topic
Summary The Timaeus, written at some point in the first half of the 4th century BC, is one of Plato's philosophical masterpieces. The first part of the dialogue features one of the speakers, Critias, giving a speech outlining an ancient conflict between Athens and Atlantis, in which Athens apparently resembles the ideal state from the Republic, although there are some differences that scholars investigate. The rest of the dialogue is a speech by Timaeus concerning a vast array of topics that can be roughly grouped under the heading of natural philosophy, including the creation of the world, time, planets, the human body, the nature of health and disease, the structure of and relationships between earth, fire, water, and air, and much more. Much of what is discussed is metaphysical, such as the creation of the soul, space, and the Forms. Timaeus' speech is said to at different times to be a likely story (muthos) and a likely account (logos), and its status as such has made interpreting its claims difficult for scholars for centuries. 
Key works There are many excellent commentaries on the Timaeus, including Cornford 1935 and Brisson 1974. One can also read Proclus' commentary, the first volume of which is published as Tarrant 2007. Calcidius' Latin commentary exists in English now too: Calcidius 2016. Neither ancient commentary is complete, however. For complete studies of the dialogue, see Johansen 2004 and Broadie 2011.
Introductions Cornford 1935 is one of the best introductory (and perhaps even not-introductory) resources on the dialogue. For a worthwhile collection of papers about the Timaeus and its place in intellectual history, see Mohr 2010.
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  1. Irrigating Blood: Plato on the Circulatory System, the Cosmos, and Elemental Motion.Douglas Campbell - forthcoming - Journal of the History of Philosophy.
    This article concerns the so-called irrigation system in the Timaeus’ biology (77a-81e), which replenishes our body’s tissues with resources from food delivered as blood. I argue that this system functions mainly by the natural like-to-like motion of the elements and that the circulation of blood is an important case study of Plato’s physics. We are forced to revise the view that the elements attract their like. Instead, similar elements merely tend to coalesce with each other in virtue of their tactile (...)
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  2. Biology in the Timaeus’ Account of Nous and Cognitive Life.Douglas R. Campbell - forthcoming - In Melina G. Mouzala (ed.), Cognition in Ancient Greek Philosophy and its Reception: Intedisciplinary Approaches. Baden-Baden: Academia Verlag/Nomos. pp. 145-172.
    I develop an account of the role that biology plays in the Timaeus’ view of nous and other aspects of cognitive life. I begin by outlining the biology of human cognition. I then argue that these biological views shine an important light on different aspects of the soul. I then argue that the human body is particularly friendly to nous, paying special attention to the heart and the liver. I next consider the ways that the body fails to protect our (...)
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  3. Beauty of Order and Symmetry in Minerals: Bridging Ancient Greek Philosophy with Modern Science.Chiara Elmi & Dani L. Goodman - forthcoming - Foundations of Science:1-13.
    Scientific observation has led to the discovery of recurring patterns in nature. Symmetry is the property of an object showing regularity in parts on a plane or around an axis. There are several types of symmetries observed in the natural world and the most common are mirror symmetry, radial symmetry, and translational symmetry. Symmetries can be continuous or discrete. A discrete symmetry is a symmetry that describes non-continuous changes in an object. A continuous symmetry is a repetition of an object (...)
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  4. The philosopher’s Reward: Contemplation and Immortality in Plato’s Dialogues.Suzanne Obdrzalek - forthcoming - In Alex Long (ed.), Immortality in Ancient Philosophy.
    In dialogues ranging from the Symposium to the Timaeus, Plato appears to propose that the philosopher’s grasp of the forms may confer immortality upon him. Whatever can Plato mean in making such a claim? What does he take immortality to consist in, such that it could constitute a reward for philosophical enlightenment? And how is this proposal compatible with Plato’s insistence throughout his corpus that all soul, not just philosophical soul, is immortal? In this chapter, I pursue these questions by (...)
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  5. What Time is Not: εἰκών and ἀριθμός in Plato’s Account of Time in the Timaeus (37d5-7) and the Platonic Tradition.Thomas Seissl - forthcoming - International Journal of the Platonic Tradition:1-28.
    In one of the most famous but equally obscure passages in the Timaeus, Plato describes the generation of time and the heavens. The “moving image of eternity” (37d5) is commonly read as Plato’s most general characterisation of time. Rémi Brague famously challenged the traditional interpretation on linguistic grounds by claiming that Plato actually did not conceive of time as an image (εἰκών) but rather as a number (ἀριθμός). In this paper, I shall claim that this controversy is by no means (...)
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  6. The Suspicious Substrate: Calcidius on Grasping Matter.Nena Bobovnik - 2024 - Apeiron 57 (1):1-24.
    In the Timaeus, Plato famously acknowledges the receptacle as extremely difficult to comprehend. It is neither intelligible (which is reserved exclusively for the Forms) nor sense-perceptible (as it is a principle far too basic). Instead, as Plato proposes, the receptacle can only be apprehended through a “bastard” sort of “reasoning” (νόθος λογισμός, Tim. 52b1-2.). This paper explores an exegesis of Plato’s claim as offered by Calcidius, the 4th century translator of and commentator on the Timaeus. I identify two distinctive methods (...)
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  7. Cosmos and Perception in Plato’s Timaeus: In the Eye of the Cognitive Storm. By Mark Eli Kalderon. [REVIEW]Douglas R. Campbell - 2024 - Ancient Philosophy 44 (1):255-258.
    This is an impressive and important book about perception in Plato’s Timaeus, but most of its readers will probably be researchers who are interested in much broader questions about the dialogue. There is nothing deficient or lacking about this treatment of perception, but this book should be put alongside Thomas Johansen’s Plato’s Natural Philosophy and Sarah Broadie’s Nature and Divinity in the sense that this is, for all intents and purposes, a monograph about the whole Timaeus, even though it is (...)
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  8. "Platonic Dualism Reconsidered".Suzanne Obdrzalek - 2024 - Phronesis 69 (1):31-62.
    I argue that in the Phaedo, Plato maintains that the soul is located in space and is capable of locomotion and of interacting with the body through contact. Numerous interpreters have dismissed these claims as merely metaphorical, since they assume that as an incorporeal substance, the soul cannot possess spatial attributes. But careful examination of how Plato conceives of the body throughout his corpus reveals that he does not distinguish it from the soul in terms of spatiality. Furthermore, assigning spatial (...)
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  9. Does the Universe Perceive? On Cosmic Perception in the Timaeus.Preite Alesia - 2023 - Méthexis 35 (1):108–133.
    In the present paper, I argue that in order to be in a position to understand what the World Soul thinks about, we need first to answer the question of whether the universe perceives and if so, of what it perceives. I shall first (section ) lay out the main reasons for suspecting that the universe has perception and some possible objections against this view. I will then (section ) make a case for my claim that the universe has perception (...)
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  10. Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy.Vilius Bartninkas - 2023 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    This book sheds new light on Plato's cosmology in relation to Greek religion by examining the contested distinction between the traditional and cosmic gods. A close reading of the later dialogues shows that the two families of gods are routinely deployed to organise and structure Plato's accounts of the origins of the universe and of humanity and its social institutions, and to illuminate the moral and political ideals of philosophical utopias. Vilius Bartninkas argues that the presence of the two kinds (...)
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  11. CALCIDIUS’ PHILOSOPHY - (G.) Reydams-Schils Calcidius on Plato's Timaeus. Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Contexts. Pp. x + 243. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Cased, £74.99, US$99.99. ISBN: 978-1-108-42056-3. [REVIEW]Jason M. Baxter - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):480-482.
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  12. What Timaeus Can Teach Us: The Importance of Plato’s Timaeus in the 21st Century.Douglas R. Campbell - 2023 - Athena 18:58-73.
    In this article, I make the case for the continued relevance of Plato’s Timaeus. I begin by sketching Allan Bloom’s picture of the natural sciences today in The Closing of the American Mind, according to which the natural sciences are, objectionably, increasingly specialized and have ejected humans qua humans from their purview. I argue that Plato’s Timaeus, despite the falsity of virtually all of its scientific claims, provides a model for how we can pursue scientific questions in a comprehensive way (...)
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  13. Plato on Sunaitia.Douglas R. Campbell - 2023 - Apeiron 56 (4):739-768.
    I argue that Plato thinks that a sunaition is a mere tool used by a soul (or by the cosmic nous) to promote an intended outcome. In the first section, I develop the connection between sunaitia and Plato’s teleology. In the second section, I argue that sunaitia belong to Plato’s theory of the soul as a self-mover: specifically, they are those things that are set in motion by the soul in the service of some goal. I also argue against several (...)
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  14. Plato's Moral Realism.Lloyd P. Gerson - 2023 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    Plato's moral realism rests on the Idea of the Good, the unhypothetical first principle of all. It is this, as Plato says, that makes just things useful and beneficial. That Plato makes the first principle of all the Idea of the Good sets his approach apart from that of virtually every other philosopher. This fact has been occluded by later Christian Platonists who tried to identify the Good with the God of scripture. But for Plato, theology, though important, is subordinate (...)
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  15. Hypothetical Inquiry in Plato's Timaeus.Jonathan Edward Griffiths - 2023 - Ancient Philosophy Today 5 (2):156-177.
    This paper re-constructs Plato's ‘philosophy of geometry’ by arguing that he uses a geometrical method of hypothesis in his account of the cosmos’ generation in the Timaeus. Commentators on Plato's philosophy of mathematics often start from Aristotle's report in the Metaphysics that Plato admitted the existence of mathematical objects in-between ( metaxu) Forms and sensible particulars ( Meta. 1.6, 987b14–18). I argue, however, that Plato's interest in mathematics was centred on its methodological usefulness for philosophical inquiry, rather than on questions (...)
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  16. THE BIBLE AND GREEK LITERATURE - (R.E.) Gmirkin Plato's Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts. Cosmic Monotheism and Terrestrial Polytheism in the Primordial History. Pp. xvi + 344. London and New York: Routledge, 2022. Cased, £120, US$160. ISBN: 978-1-032-02082-2. [REVIEW]Anselm C. Hagedorn - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):690-692.
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  17. Divine Agency and Politics in Plato’s Myth of Atlantis.George Harvey - 2023 - Apeiron 56 (3):555-576.
    This paper approaches the Critias straightforwardly as a work of political philosophy but gives greater attention to Athens’ opponent, Atlantis, whose founding, political organization, and eventual decline each offer important lessons about the aims of legislation and political life. I begin by comparing the foundation of the two cities as presented in Critias’ myth, with a special focus on the role of divine persuasion (I). I then describe the political organization of Athens and Atlantis, showing how they reflect the different (...)
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  18. Cosmos and Perception in Plato's Timaeus.Mark Eli Kalderon - 2023 - New York: Routledge.
    This is an essay on perception and its objects in the Timaeus. Two features of this work are noteworthy. First, the emphasis throughout is on Timaeus' views and not Plato's. Second, I show how broader aspects of Timaeus' cosmology are directly relevant to his philosophy of perception.
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  19. Plato’s Timaeus and the Limits of Natural Science.Ian MacFarlane - 2023 - Apeiron 56 (3):495-517.
    The relationship between mind and necessity is one of the major points of difficulty for the interpretation of Plato’s Timaeus. At times Timaeus seems to say the demiurge is omnipotent in his creation, and at other times seems to say he is limited by pre-existing matter. Most interpretations take one of the two sides, but this paper proposes a novel approach to interpreting this issue which resolves the difficulty. This paper suggests that in his speech Timaeus presents two hypothetical models (...)
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  20. Nature as an Instrumental Cause in Proclus.Rareș Ilie Marinescu - 2023 - Apeiron 56 (4):673-692.
    In this paper I focus on Proclus’ concept of the instrumental cause in his commentary on the Timaeus (In Tim.). Unlike earlier Neoplatonists who do not make much use of this type of causality, Proclus relates the instrumental cause to the hypostasis of nature (φύσις). The Demiurge uses nature as an instrument in his ordering and creation of the cosmos. How does Proclus arrive at this understanding of nature? I argue that the definition of nature as an instrumental cause is (...)
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  21. On Plato’s Precosmos ( Ti. 52d2–53c3).Federico M. Petrucci - 2023 - Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 44 (1):45-64.
    The aim of this paper is to provide a new reading of Plato’s precosmos (Ti. 52d2–53c3). More specifically, I shall argue that the precosmos is populated by bodies deriving from random complexes of properties, and that this is the effect of the Receptacle’s full precosmic participation in the Paradigm. This will turn out to be consistent with a robust notion of ‘precosmic generation’ and will reveal why Plato may have sought to refer to this otherwise puzzling scenario: representing the precosmos (...)
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  22. Blood and the Awareness of Perception. From Early Greek Thought to Plato’s Timaeus.Maria Michela Sassi - 2023 - Apeiron 56 (2):163-186.
    In this paper I first address what I consider a central issue in the account of perception in Plato’s Timaeus, namely, how the pathemata pass through the body to reach the soul, and thus become aistheseis. My point in Section 1 is that in tackling this issue Plato aims to provide a firm physiological basis to the notion of perception that starts to emerge in the Theaetetus and the Philebus and is crucial to the late development of his theory of (...)
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  23. Proportionate Atomism: Solving the Problem of Isomorphic Variants in Plato’s Timaeus.Lea Aurelia Schroeder - 2023 - Phronesis 68 (1):31-61.
    The principles governing elemental composition, variation, and change in Plato’s Timaeus appear to be incompatible, which has led commentators to prioritize some of the principles to the exclusion of others. Call this seeming incompatibility the problem of isomorphic variants. In this paper, I develop the theory of proportionate atomism as a solution to this problem. Proportionate atomism retains the advantages of rival interpretations but allows the principles of material composition, variation, and change to combine into an internally coherent and explanatorily (...)
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  24. Sculpture, Weaving, and the Body in Plato.Petraki Zacharoula - 2023 - Leiden: Walter de Gruyter.
    Plato's Timaeus is unique in Greek Antiquity for presenting the creation of the world as the work of a divine demiurge. The maker bestows order on sensible things and imitates the world of the intellect by using the Forms as models. While the creation-myth of the Timaeus seems unparalleled, this book argues that it is not the first of Plato's dialogues to use artistic language to articulate the relationship of the objects of the material world to the world of the (...)
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  25. Anthropomorphic Motifs in Ancient Greek Ideas on the Origin of the Cosmos.Zuzana Zelinová & František Škvrnda - 2023 - Human Affairs 33 (2):172-183.
    In our article, we will focus on an analysis of the relationship between man and the cosmos, set against the backdrop of ancient Greek ideas about the origin of the world. On the one hand, we will deal with the images of the creation of the world provided in Greek mythology and the religious tradition associated with it (in particular Hesiod); on the other hand, we will approach the anthropomorphic elements within the framework of philosophical cosmogonies (Plato’s dialogue, the Timaeus). (...)
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  26. Galen and the Arabic Reception of Plato’s Timaeus, by Aileen R. Das.Tommaso Alpina - 2022 - Mind 132 (528):1225-1232.
    That philosophy and medicine provide complementary forms of knowledge of the same subject is attested several times, by many authors, in various ways. For examp.
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  27. Time and Light in Plato's Timaeus.Carolina Araujo - 2022 - In Daniel Vázquez & Alberto Ross (eds.), Time and Cosmology in Plato and the Platonic Tradition. Leiden: Brill. pp. 134-155.
    This chapter is about the movement of sunlight and the concept of time in Timaeus’ cosmology in Plato’s Timaeus. It argues for three connected theses: (i) that light is a grounding principle of his account; (ii) that Timaeus puts forward a proposal for the calculation of a cosmic calendar, i.e., the counting of time according to the movement of sunlight throughout the whole world; and (iii) that he understands time (chronos) as the movement of all heavenly bodies relative to the (...)
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  28. Reydams-Schils, Gretchen, Calcidius on Plato’s Timaeus – Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2020, ix + 243 pp.Calcidius on Plato’s Timaeus – Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Contexts. [REVIEW]Béatrice Bakhouche - 2022 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 104 (3):590-592.
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  29. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.Francisco Bastitta Harriet - 2022 - In Natalia Jacubecki, María Cecilia Rusconi & Natalia Strok (eds.), Platón cosmólogo. Recepción del Timeo entre la Edad Media y la temprana Modernidad. Buenos Aires: Winograd. pp. 483-529.
    As in the case of other humanists and philosophers of the period, an important aspect of Pico della Mirandola's interpretation of the Platonic Timaeus consists of direct access to the dialogue in its original Greek, which the young man possessed in his personal library. This does not mean that Pico does not also take an interest in the ancient Latin translations of Cicero and Calcidius, both personally and in Ficino's circle. But these are read with the critical distance and the (...)
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  30. La recepción del Timeo en la Antigüedad griega.Francisco Bastitta Harriet - 2022 - In Natalia Jacubecki, María Cecilia Rusconi & Natalia Strok (eds.), Platón cosmólogo. Recepción del Timeo entre la Edad Media y la temprana Modernidad. Buenos Aires: Winograd. pp. 19-28.
    General introduction to early Greek philosophical exegeses of Plato's Timaeus, from the early Academy to the beginning of the Roman Empire in pagan, Jewish and Christian circles. -/- Introducción general a las primeras exégesis filosóficas del Timeo de Platón, desde la temprana Academia hasta los inicios del Imperio romano en ámbitos paganos, judíos y cristianos de habla griega.
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  31. The Mathematical Anti-atomism of Plato’s Timaeus.Luc Brisson & Salomon Ofman - 2022 - Ancient Philosophy 42 (1):121-145.
    In Plato’s eponymous dialogue, Timaeus, the main character presents the universe as an (almost) perfect sphere filled by tiny, invisible particles having the form of four regular polyhedrons. At first glance, such a construction may seem close to an atomistic theory. However, one does not find any text in Antiquity that links Timaeus’ cosmology to the atomists, while Aristotle opposes clearly Plato to the latter. Nevertheless, Plato is commonly presented in contemporary literature as some sort of atomist, sometimes as supporting (...)
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  32. Platonismo e aristotelismo nel Timaeus di Cicerone.Selene I. S. Brumana - 2022 - Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 43 (2):249-278.
    Cicero’sTimaeuslegitimately stands as the first Latin exegesis of the Platonic dialogue. I shall deal with the interpretation of §§19–21, a passage that departs significantly from the Greek text in several respects. The aim of this paper is to explore the role Aristotelianism might have played in Cicero’sTimaeus. Among the points that support such an analysis is the mention of the Peripatetic Cratippus in the prologue. The interpretative scenario I suggest considers both Cratippus’ role and Antiochus’s philosophical system with its agreement (...)
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  33. The Soul’s Tool: Plato on the Usefulness of the Body.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Elenchos 43 (1):7-27.
    This paper concerns Plato’s characterization of the body as the soul’s tool. I take perception as an example of the body’s usefulness. I explore the Timaeus’ view that perception provides us with models of orderliness. Then, I argue that perception of confusing sensible objects is necessary for our cognitive development too. Lastly, I consider the instrumentality relationship more generally and its place in Plato’s teleological worldview.
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  34. Located in Space: Plato’s Theory of Psychic Motion.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Ancient Philosophy 42 (2):419-442.
    I argue that Plato thinks that the soul has location, surface, depth, and extension, and that the Timaeus’ composition of the soul out of eight circles is intended literally. A novel contribution is the development of an account of corporeality that denies the entailment that the soul is corporeal. I conclude by examining Aristotle’s objection to the Timaeus’ psychology and then the intellectual history of this reading of Plato.
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  35. Plato's Theory of Reincarnation: Eschatology and Natural Philosophy.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Review of Metaphysics 75 (4):643-665.
    This article concerns the place of Plato’s eschatology in his philosophy. I argue that the theory of reincarnation appeals to Plato due to its power to explain how non-human animals came to be. Further, the outlines of this theory are entailed by other commitments, such as that embodiment disrupts psychic functioning, that virtue is always rewarded and vice punished, and that the soul is immortal. I conclude by arguing that Plato develops a view of reincarnation as the chief tool that (...)
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  36. The Soul’s Tomb: Plato on the Body as the Cause of Psychic Disorders.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Apeiron 55 (1):119-139.
    I argue that, according to Plato, the body is the sole cause of psychic disorders. This view is expressed at Timaeus 86b in an ambiguous sentence that has been widely misunderstood by translators and commentators. The goal of this article is to offer a new understanding of Plato’s text and view. In the first section, I argue that although the body is the result of the gods’ best efforts, their sub-optimal materials meant that the soul is constantly vulnerable to the (...)
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  37. Gretchen Reydams-Schils. Calcidius on Plato's Timaeus: Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception, and Christian Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. [REVIEW]Julieta Cardigni - 2022 - Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval 29 (1):237-242.
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  38. Mind and Necessity in Timaeus’ Hepatology.Evan Coulter - 2022 - Ancient Philosophy 42 (1):105-119.
    Analogies between the human and the cosmos run throughout Plato’s Timaeus. Timaeus claims that the cosmos came to be as mind’s “persuasion of necessity.” This paper argues that an anthropological equivalent to this “persuasion” can be found in Timaeus’ suggestive account of the human liver. Mediating between intellect and desire, the organ shows the problem of mind and necessity reflected in the human soul.
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  39. The Role of Sexual Difference in Plato's Timaeus.Mary Cunningham - 2022 - Dissertation, University of Kentucky
    My dissertation is a reading of Plato’s Timaeus that centers sexual difference and in particular femininity. I analyze the role of sexual difference in the framing of the dialogue as well as its accounts of body in the first and second discourse and its account of health in the third discourse. I argue that sexual difference, and, in particular, sexual reproduction, serves as a guiding paradigm of Timaeus’ entire project. I argue in each part of my dissertation that various aspects (...)
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  40. Leo the Hebrew and a Kabbalistic Reading of Plato’s Timaeus.Rodrigo Pinto de Brito & Gilmar Araújo Gomes - 2022 - Prometeus: Filosofia em Revista 40.
    This paper aims to consider the specific excerpts in which Plato’s Timaeus was interpreted by the philosopher and Kabbalist Judah Abravanel, also known as Leo the Hebrew in his major work, the Dialogues of Love. From his experience of solitude lived while in exile in Italy, the Portuguese Jew composes a work written in a structure of double meanings, esoteric and exoteric, through which he interacts with the Neoplatonic Renaissance community of his time while communicating with the Kabbalistic tradition from (...)
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  41. La materia e la creazione del mondo nel De opificio mundi di Filone di Alessandria.Ludovica De Luca - 2022 - Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 43 (1):105-137.
    Following the traces of some references to pre-existing matter in the Septuagint, the article analyses the interpretation of Gen 1, 2a in Philo of Alexandria’s De opificio mundi with a focus on his omission of the ἀκατασκεύαστος character of the earth. Philo’s interpretation is closely linked to his conception of emptiness and to his pioneering defence of a creation ex nihilo. In his cosmology, which is articulated as a dual interpretation of the Genesis and Plato’s Timaeus, the matter plays an (...)
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  42. Le rôle problématique d’éros dans le Timée de Platon.Arnaud Dufour - 2022 - Ithaque 31:1-22.
    Parmi les difficultés bien connues du Timée compte celle touchant au rôle problématique d’éros dans la cosmologie que Platon met dans la bouche de Timée. Dans son exposé cosmologique, Timée rend compte de deux inflexions différentes d’éros – sexuelle et philosophique –, mais il n’explique pas comment ces deux inflexions sont censées coopérer pour rendre possible la vie la meilleure qui soit : la vie philosophique. Il se trouve que l’imprécision du « discours érotique » de Timée ainsi que son (...)
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  43. Aileen R. Das, Galen and the Arabic Reception of Plato’s “Timaeus”, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xii, 243; black-and-white figures. $99.99. ISBN: 978-1-1084-9948-4. [REVIEW]Cristina D’Ancona - 2022 - Speculum 97 (3):820-822.
  44. Post-Hellenistic Philosophy on God and the WorldCalcidius on Plato’s Timaeus: Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception, and Christian ContextsPseudo-Aristotle: De mundo. [REVIEW]Andrea Falcon - 2022 - Rhizomata 10 (1):163-171.
  45. Mathematics and Cosmology in Plato’s Timaeus.Andrew Gregory - 2022 - Apeiron 55 (3):359-389.
    Plato used mathematics extensively in his account of the cosmos in the Timaeus, but as he did not use equations, but did use geometry, harmony and according to some, numerology, it has not been clear how or to what effect he used mathematics. This paper argues that the relationship between mathematics and cosmology is not atemporally evident and that Plato’s use of mathematics was an open and rational possibility in his context, though that sort of use of mathematics has subsequently (...)
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  46. Evil, Demiurgy, and the Taming of Necessity in Plato’s Timaeus.Elizabeth Jelinek & Casey Hall - 2022 - International Philosophical Quarterly 62 (1):5-21.
    Plato’s Timaeus reveals a cosmos governed by Necessity and Intellect; commentators have debated the relationship between them. Non-literalists hold that the demiurge, having carte blanche in taming Necessity, is omnipotent. But this omnipotence, alongside the attributes of benevolence and omniscience, creates problems when non-literalists address the problem of evil. We take the demiurge rather as limited by Necessity. This position is supported by episodes within the text, and by its larger consonance with Plato’s philosophy of evil and responsibility. By recognizing (...)
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  47. L’être et le temps dans le Parménide et dans le Timée de Platon.F. Karfík - 2022 - International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 16 (2):134-151.
    Two of Plato’s dialogues, the Parmenides and the Timaeus, deal explicitly with the relationship between being and time. The former builds on the assumption that whatever is must be temporal, while the latter makes being and time mutually exclusive. This paper begins by examining how the argument develops in the Parmenides, specifically in the corresponding sections 140e1-142a1 and 151e3-155e3 of the first and the second deductions of the dialectical exercise, as well as in the corollary to the second deduction at (...)
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  48. Plotin interprète de la chôra du Timée (Ennéades III, 6 [26], 13‑18).Filip Karfík - 2022 - Chôra 20:93-105.
    How does Plotinus interpret the chora in Plato’s Timaeus? For him, Timaeus 48e‑52d deals with matter (hyle). The identification of chora with hyle goes back to Aristotle’s Physics IV.2. Aristotle’s interpretation of Plato’s chora as matter was echoed by Theophrastus and the Stoics and prevailed in Middle‑Platonist, neo‑Pythagorean and early Christian authors. In addition to the identification of chora with hyle, the ancient interpreters of the Timaeus conflated hyle with Plato’s ananke (Tim. 47e‑48a). Plato himself distinguishes between chora and ananke. (...)
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  49. Gretchen Reydams-Schils: Calcidius on Plato’s Timaeus. Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Context. [REVIEW]Claudia Lo Casto - 2022 - Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 43 (1):193-196.
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  50. Plato’s Timaeus and the limits of natural science.Ian J. MacFarlane - 2022 - Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin
    The Timaeus is perhaps the most unusual of Plato’s dialogues. In this paper, I attempt to interpret Timaeus’s strange speech, which makes up most of the dialogue. I argue that Timaeus has grasped the grave challenge posed to philosophic reason by men like Hesiod who claim that mysterious gods are the first causes of the world, and therefore one cannot say that there are any true necessities governing this world. If this is true, then philosophy, as the study of nature, (...)
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