Timaeus

One might be tempted to read more of this in instances of insomnia, but Plato's understanding of society and humanity is so egregiously faulty that I cannot get through a single sentence without outrage or at least an attempt at mordant humor. File this under What Not to Read. It does make me wonder, though, what one author from today will still be in print and possibly even read 2500 years from now, and how embarrassed would we all be to be represented by that body of work?

Eu tinha grandes esperanças pelo Timaeus, porque gosto dos diálogos de Giordano Bruno que dali partem, falando da alma do mundo, da diferenciação entre matéria e forma e a causa, a alma do mundo (em "Causa, Princípio e Unidade"), em duas esferas, mas que se comunicam na enformação da matéria informe. Essa articulação da participação do ideal na matéria, bem como a existência um ponto de vista fora do tempo e outro no tempo, que leva à colocação de inadequação de termos de um ao outro, me parecerão ser referenciados como vindo do Timaeus, de alguma forma. Mas me decepcionei, a linguagem sendo mais arrastada e mítica no sentido ruim, os conhecimentos de física bastante precários. O interesse é portanto, histórico show more - é preciso começar de algum lugar, afinal, e o texto foi muito importante pros neo-platônicos do medievo.

Mas sinceramente, após uma rápida incursão no mito de Atlantis e das intrusões de Gaia, a criar um tempo civilizacional cíclico, o monólogo cosmológico do pitagórico Timeu é enfadonho, da origem do universo até os animais. O demiurgo coloca ordem na casa, isto é, cria tudo, e essa regularidade é o modelo que devemos buscar, nosso elo com a eternidade, sendo tudo composto por triângulos, o isóceles e a metade do equilatero os dois mais belos. show less

Although I do not believe in this, it is one of the most fascinating of Plato's dialogues and one of the most in-depth and lucid.

Extremely engaging. If you wish to understand Greece, you should understand this

Timaeus is a book which tells us about how Plato thought the world came to be. Ofcourse it is not very credible any more, but it contains some very interesting ideas. For example, the book explores the difference between the intelligible world and the sensory world. Also, it tries to answer the question if this universe is the only, and if so, why. It combines mathematics and metaphysics, and next to that it defines 'God' in an interesting way (as being the universe, if I'm not mistaken). However, halfway the book turns into complete rubbish. Here Timaeus tries to show us why the body is shaped the way it is. The stories he makes up aren't even metaphores, they are extensive explorations of an outdated medical view. They could not show more interest me. It is because of this extended last part that, overall, I do not think this is a very valuable book. show less

Some of Plato's cosmology - interesting and good context for The Republic, but fuck Plato.

This recent translation has a helpful and fairly lengthy introduction to set out the main arguments. In this new translation, Zeyl introduces some new elements but the work is readable and well done.

I picked up this title to read what Plato wrote about Atlantis. Unfortunately, surprisingly little. I skimmed through the rest, because it didn't seem believable.