Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Plato: Timaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles (Loeb Classical Library No. 234) (v. 9) (edition 1929)by Plato, R. G. Bury (Translator)
Work InformationTimaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles by Plato
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I read the Timaeus for summer Basic Program discussion class in 1997. Plato presents an account of the formation of the universe in the Timaeus. He is deeply impressed with the order and beauty he observes in the universe, and his project in the dialogue is to explain that order and beauty from a teleological perspective. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman (“Demiurge,” dêmiourgos, 28a6), who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos). He presents the universe as a whole as well as its various parts arranged as to produce a vast array of good effects. It strikes Plato strongly that this arrangement is not fortuitous, but the outcome of the deliberate intent of Intellect (nous), anthropomorphically represented by the figure of the Craftsman who plans and constructs a world that is as excellent as its nature permits it to be. The Timaeus, begins with a summary by Socrates of what appears to be a fragment of the Republic (from Book II to the middle of Book V) and ends with a construction of a universe in which the citizen of Socrates’ best city could have his home. As Plato discusses, the beautiful orderliness of the universe is not only the manifestation of Intellect; it is also the model for rational souls to understand and to emulate. Such understanding and emulation restores those souls to their original state of excellence, a state that was lost in their embodiment. This is a difficult but, ultimately, rewarding work by this foundational philosopher. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesLoeb Classical Library (234)
The great Athenian philosopher Plato was born in 427 BCE and lived to be eighty. Acknowledged masterpieces among his works are the Symposium, which explores love in its many aspects, from physical desire to pursuit of the beautiful and the good, and the Republic, which concerns righteousness and also treats education, gender, society, and slavery. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)184.1Philosophy and Psychology Ancient, medieval and eastern philosophy Platonic PlatoLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |