Overview

In the Timaeus, Plato presents an elaborately wrought account of the formation of the universe. Plato 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. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency.

As Plato tells it, 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.

Background

Despite some critical bickering, it is generally accepted that the Timaeus was written in the “late” period.

  1. THE SETUP
    1. SOCRATES first recapitulates the main points he made the previous day (similar to those in “The Republic”, but unrecorded) to all present’s satisfaction. Apparently, today, Socrates was to listen, and CRITIAS and TIMAEUS were to tell.
    2. Critias suggests that he tell a lost story - and he swears it is factual - of the old Athenians. Socrates’ (unrecorded) account of perfect governance had brought it to his mind. In order for this story to be told, however, Critias will require a fairly long wind-up from Timaeus, which constitutes the entirety of this dialogue.
      1. Timaeus (an astronomer) will begin with the generation of the world and go up to the creation of men (inclusive, it turns out). Critias will take it from there, which he does in the next (eponymous) dialogue.
    3. In his prefatory remarks Timaeus describes the account he is about to give as a “likely account” (eikôs logos). This apology is clearly meant to lower our expectations: the account is no more than likely. It will take place it three substantive parts.
      1. The first two seem to actually be two separate accounts of the causes of the way the universe is: the divine and necessary causes, respectively.
      2. Finally, we will get an account of how this all comes to constitute the human.
  2. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INTELLECT, PART 1: THE TELEOLOGICAL UNIVERSE
    1. Timaeus begins with a (now familiar) account of “what is and never becomes” (that which is apprehended by reason - the Forms, or the pattern) and vice versa (apprehended by opinion).
    2. Overview: The achievements here are those of the creation of the world, and “the intellect” here is God. Here is an overview of the argument for God:
      1. Some things always are, without ever becoming (27d6).
      2. Some things become, without ever being (27d6-28a1).
      3. If and only if a thing always is, then it is grasped by understanding, involving a rational account (28a1-2).
      4. If and only if a thing becomes, then it is grasped by opinion, involving unreasoning sense perception (28a2-3).[16]
      5. The universe is a thing that has become (28b7; from 5a-c, and 4).
        1. The universe is visible, tangible and possesses a body (28b7-8).
        2. If a thing is visible, tangible and possesses a body, then it is perceptible (28b8).
        3. If a thing is perceptible, then it has become (28c1-2; also entailed by 4).
      6. Anything that becomes is caused to become by something (28a4-6, c2-3).
      7. The universe has been caused to become by something (from 5 and 6).
      8. The cause of the universe is a Craftsman, who fashioned the universe after a model (28a6 ff., c3 ff.; apparently from 7, but see below).
      9. The model of the universe is something that always is (29a4-5; from 9a-9e).
        1. Either the model of the universe is something that always is or something that has become (28a5-29a2, also implied at 28a6-b2).
        2. If the universe is beautiful and the Craftsman is good, then the model of the universe is something that always is (29a2-3).
        3. If the universe is not beautiful or the Craftsman is not good, then the model of the universe is something that has become (29a3-5).
        4. The universe is supremely beautiful (29a5).
        5. The Craftsman is supremely good (29a6).
      10. The universe is a work of craft, fashioned after an eternal model (29a6-b1; from 8 and 9).
    3. Given familiar Platonic doctrines and assumptions, the argument up to the intermediate conclusion that the universe has a cause of its becoming (7) presents no particular difficulties. But 7 by itself gives only partial support to 8. Here it helps to anticipate 9d as a fundamental premise in Timaeus’ reasoning; it is not just the generation of any world, but that of a supremely beautiful one that Timaeus’ reasoning here - and in fact throughout the discourse - attempts to explain. That a world as beautiful as ours might be the effect of an unintelligent cause is a possibility that does not so much as cross Plato’s mind.
    4. The one-world entailment:
      1. If everything must have a cause, and hence the world was created (vi-iix) and
      2. since the artificer is good, it was created from the model of the eternal [note that this is a criterion for the goodness of God, and the alternative is blasphemy] (ix-x), then:
      3. Since it is created on the model of the beautiful (form), which is whole, the world is whole. Hence, there cannot be many worlds, but only one: ours.
  3. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INTELLECT, PART 2: DIVINE PHYSICS
    1. Once the conclusion that the universe is teleologically structured is settled, the explanatory methodology of the discourse changes accordingly. The question can now be: Given that the world as a whole is the best possible one within the constraints of becoming and of Necessity, what sorts of features should we expect the world to have?
    2. Divine Physics: The world is created of several elements:
      1. Fire: Since visibility is a necessity for a world.
      2. Earth: Since tangibility is a necessity for a world.
      3. Air & Water: Because we need two more means to get three dimensions, which we need because the model of the world is three-dimensional.
      4. These four elements comprise a universe that is fashioned as a globe. A globe is the perfect form, as it is entirely self-sufficient.
      5. Finally, the universe gets a soul.
    3. The actual material creation of the universe was created by god using a pretty standard series of arithmetic means and exponential series of twos and threes [1,2,4,8]&[1,3,9,27].
      1. Once the matter of the universe is created, god sets it into motion, thus creating time (day and night, months, years).
      2. God then creates gods, who he charges to create air-things, water-things, and land-things.
      3. The gods, thus charged, fashioned bodies, and (per the teachings of meta-God) laid souls into the bodies. This embodiment confuses the souls (another familiar Platonic theme), anodyne to which we have sight, which, when combined with souls, allows philosophy.
  4. AN ACCOUNT OF THE EFFECTS OF NECESSITY
    1. Overview: In addition to the divinely motivated creation of the universe, there seem to be some necessary causes. These are part and parcel to a (heretofore unmentioned) third ingredient of existence.
      1. Recall that the first two are the pattern on which it is fashioned and the things themselves which imitate the pattern. This is precisely the being/becoming distinction.
      2. In addition to these two, we also have “the receptacle”: namely, space itself, with whatever pre-deistically/rationally-ordered properties it has.
      3. Thus the thing that appears as fire here and now is not fire in its own right: its fieriness is only a temporary characterization of it. What, then, is that thing in its own right? In a difficult and controversial passage Timaeus proposes a solution: In its own right it is (part of) a totally characterless subject that temporarily in its various parts gets characterized in various ways. This is the receptacle - an enduring substratum, neutral in itself but temporarily taking on the various characterizations. The observed particulars just are parts of that receptacle so characterized.
      4. Think of the receptacle as filled space. As space, its role is to provide both three-dimensional extension and a specific location for any observable particular to be “in” at a given time: for any particular to be, it must be occupy some spatial location, though not necessarily the same one throughout. On the other hand, as the filling of that space, it serves as the neutral underlying substratum from which a particular, once characterized in some way, is constituted.
      5. An observable particular, then, is a bit of extended, localizable stuff that may be variously characterized at various times and in various places. It appears that the receptacle is intended to serve both as the matter from which observable particulars are constituted and as the spatial field or medium in which they subsist.
    2. The complete metaphysical position of the Timaeus is summed up here as (i) the eternal and unchanging forms, the “model,” or “father”; (ii) the copies of the model or “offspring” of the father and the mother (on our account, the observable particulars); and (iii) the receptacle, or “mother.”
    3. Now, the four elements (fire, earth, water, and air) are cyclical, one is always changing into the other, and so goes the world.
      1. There appears to be a question about whether these essences exist as such, or just structure existence. As soon as that is brought up, though, we are into describing the essences geometrically.
      2. I think the play here is that when God gives the world reason and measure, these substances are formalized (so to speak) into their correct geometries.
      3. On a side point, above we said that these elements are cyclically. But it is a misapprehension that they are cyclically generated. In fact, they all come from triangles.
    4. The geometries of the four substances:
      1. Fire: Tetrahedron (four triangular faces)
      2. Earth: Cube (six square faces)
      3. Water: Icosahedron (20 triangular faces)
      4. Air: Octahedron (eight triangular faces)
    5. If (a-c) constitute the discussion of matter, then what follows is the discussion of motion. This (like the above) ultimately is less interesting than what Plato is trying to do with all this (dated) speculation.
      1. Suffice it to say that the shapes infuse the interstices between each other and combine to form the media of all the senses: sight, touch, taste and hearing are discussed.
      2. In addition to filling the interstices, they can also break each other, for whatever that’s worth.
  5. HOW INTELLECT AND NECESSITY COOPERATE TO PRODUCE THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN BEINGS: ETHICS
    1. This generally takes the form of how the elements combine to form the body (organs, bones, sinews, limbs, and so on) of the human person. Then the converse, from whence imbalances arise (diseases), and then on to what one should do to care for one’s soul.
    2. The stated thematic purpose of Timaeus’ discourse - sandwiched as it is between those of Socrates and Critias - is to provide an account of human nature (in the context of the nature of the universe as a whole) that, conjoined with Socrates’ previous account of education (à la Republic), will provide the basis for Critias’ forthcoming account of human virtue in action, as displayed by the deeds of the ancient Athenians.
      1. If we take this stated purpose seriously, we will expect the entire cosmological account to culminate in human psychology and ethics. And that is indeed what we find.
    3. In the passage that may fairly be taken as the climax of Timaeus’ discourse, human beings are urged to devote their utmost attention to the cultivation and preservation of the well being of their immortal, rational souls.
    4. The whole thing ends up somewhat anticlimactically with some fairly serious misogynist rhetoric: Women are presumed to have been created in the second generation of men - those who were cowards or led unrighteous lives were changed into women. Hence, perhaps, the conflation “to get fucked.”

A quick note: This ends our series of outlines of Platonic Dialogues. Next up: Aristotle.