Title: Mathematization, movement, and extension of the world-soul in Plato's Timaeus
Source document: Pro-Fil. 2023, vol. 24, iss. 2, pp. 43-54
Extent
43-54
-
ISSN1212-9097 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/pf23-2-37080
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.79846
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Rights access
open access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The main aim of this study is to explain passage 35b4-37a2 of Plato's Timaeus which deals with three main topics: the mathematization of the world-soul, its movement, and its binding to the world's body. First, it is argued that the mathematical structure of the world-soul allows it to participate in and be sensitive to harmony, which is essential for the correct workings of its cognitive capacities. Second, the division of the world-soul to the circle of the Same and the circles of the Other and its self-motion comes in. This allows it to "touch" and cognize the forms and the material things, as well as rule the movement of the corporeal world and care for it. In this aspect, the world-soul continues the process that started with the original creative act of the demiurge. Third, it is argued that the description of the world-soul's binding to the world-body entails its conception as a spatially extended entity, which, in turn, explains of the possibility of an interaction between the corporeal world and its soul.
References
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[2] Aristotle (1907): De anima (ed., trans., comm. R. D. Hicks), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Aristotle (2010): De anima (trans., pers. comm. M. Shiffman), Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, R. Pullins Co.
[4] Brisson, L. (1998): Le Meme et l'Autre dans la Structure Ontologique du Timée de Platon. Un commentaire sistematique du Timée de Platon, Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.
[5] Cherniss, H. (1944): Aristotle's Criticism of Plato and the Academy, Vol. I, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
[6] Corcilius, K. (2018): Ideal Intellectual Cognition in Timaeus 37 a 2-c 5, In: Caston, V. (ed.): Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 54, 51–105.
[7] Cornford, F. M. (1997): Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus Of Plato, Indianapolis – Cam-bridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
[8] Dicks, D. R. (1985): Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle, Ithaca/New York: Cornell University Press.
[9] Hladký, V. (2017): Empedocles' Sphairos. Rhizomata 5 (1), 1–24.
[10] Johansen, T. K. (2004): Plato's Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias, Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11] Karfík, F. (2004): Die Beseelung des Kosmos: Untersuchungen zur Kosmologie, Seelenlehre und Theologie in Platons Phaidon und Timaios, Munich – Leipzig: Saur, 2004.
[12] Karfík, F. (2007): Duše a svět, Praha: OIKOYMENH.
[13] Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S. (1996): Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[14] Plato (1997): Complete Works (edited by John M. Cooper), Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
[15] Plato (1900-1907), Platonis Opera I-V (ed. I. Burnet), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[16] Proklos (1903): Procli Diadochi in Platonis Timaeum Commentaria (ed. E. Diehl), Leipzig: Teubner.
[17] Reydams-Schils, G. (1997): Plato's World-soul: Grasping Sensibles without Sense-Perception, In: Brisson, L., Calvo, T. (eds): Interpreting the Timaeus - Critias: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium Platonicum, Granada. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 261-265.
[18] Robinson, T. (1995): Plato's Psychology, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[19] Stránský, J. (2018): Problematika kosmogonie v Platónově dialogu Tímaios, Reflexe, 54, 43–77.
[20] Stránský, J. (2022): Duše jako směs jsoucnosti, totožnosti a různosti v Platónově dialogu Tímaios (Tim. 35a1-b3) , Filozofia, 77 (6), 456–470.
[21] Tarán, L. (2001): Creation Myth in Plato's Timaeus, in: Leonardo Tarán: Collected Papers (1962-1999). Leiden/Boston/Köln: Brill.
[22] Taylor, A. E. (1928): A Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[23] Thein, K. (2018): Soul and Incorporeality in Plato, Eirene. Studia Graeca et Latina, 54 (1–2), 53–95.