Cosmology in the Timaeus The Works of Reason

1. The frame of the dialogue - Connections to the Republic (17c-19a). - Atlantis myth (20d ff.) and connections to the (unfinished) Critias and the (unstarted) Hermocrates. - Pythagorean background of Timaeus. - Mythological status. - Largely a monologue.

2. Timaeus introduction (27d-29d) - Distinction between that which always is and has no becoming and that which becomes but never is (27d-28a). - Causation, Demiurge (craftsman) and model (28a-29a). - Eternal or created cosmos? (28b-c). - Difficulty in identifying and discussing the creator of the cosmos (28c). - The likely story (eikos muthos) (29b-d).

3. The creation of the cosmos - Providence (29d-30c). - Cosmos as ensouled, intelligent living creature modelled on Form (30b-31a). - One world (31a-b). - Construction of the world-body from elements standing in unifying proportions (31b-32c). - Self-sufficient spherical cosmos with circular motion (32c-34a)

4. The world-soul - The soul of the world is immanent and extended throughout the cosmic body (34b). - Divinity of the cosmos and divinity of the world soul (34b). - Priority of soul over body (34b-c). - Construction of the world soul from bands of the same and the different divided in harmonic ratios (35a-37c). - Time as the motion of the heavens and the creation of the heavenly bodies (37c39e).

5. The creation of living beings - The heavenly bodies as gods (39e-40d). - Other gods in the traditional pantheon (40d-41a). - The Demiurges speech to the gods (41a-41d).

Completion of the contents of the cosmos through the creation of mortals (41d44c). Humans as microcosms (42e-43b). The embodiment of human souls causes their circuits to become warped and twisted (43b-44a). Natural inclination to right their orbits comes into effect (44b-c). The creation of the eyes (44d-46e) and their beneficial function (46e-47c); parallel account of ears and hearing (47c-e).

6. The second creation moment the works of Necessity (47e ff.)

Week Five Presentations 1. How does the account of the works of Necessity (47e ff.) in the Timaeus differ from that of the works of reason? What is the Receptacle and to what extent should we understand it as a primary principle of the cosmos? 2. What account does Timaeus give of the elements at 53b-57d and how do the elements undergo change? 3. How is the soul related to the Forms in the Phaedo? 4. How does the account of the Forms in the Phaedo differ from the cosmology of the Timaeus?

Week Five Reading 1. Timaeus 41d-42d, 46e-47e; Phaedrus 245c-249d. 2. D. Fredes Platos Ethics on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website.