Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Of the small but elite group of Plato's latest dialogues the Timaeus is the only one to which I shall devote a chapter – and it will be a short chapter, dealing with a single but quite crucial aspect of the dialogue: the status of the account that Plato has the main speaker, Timaeus, give of the cosmos and its origins, together with the closely connected question of Plato's, and Socrates', relationship to this Timaeus. (What I present here, as in the previous chapter, will be a sketch, on outline of an idea, but one that is not only consistent with but grows directly from the argument of the book as a whole.) My brief treatment of this dialogue is intended to show the application to the Timaeus of my special thesis about the reasons why Plato chooses, in his late dialogues, not to use Socrates in the leading role that he reserved almost exclusively for him in the first two dialogue groups. Given my larger thesis about the closeness, even virtual identity, of Plato to his character Socrates, the question why, in the latest group, he should promote others to this role, in five out of six cases, is clearly pressing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing , pp. 255 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007