The Project Gutenberg EBook of Timaeus, by Plato

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Title: Timaeus

Author: Plato

Translator: B. Jowett

Posting Date: September 15, 2008 [EBook #1572]
Release Date: December, 1998

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Sue Asscher

TIMAEUS

by Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.

Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and
repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest
influence over the ancient and mediaeval world. The obscurity arises in
the infancy of physical science, out of the confusion of theological,
mathematical, and physiological notions, out of the desire to conceive
the whole of nature without any adequate knowledge of the parts, and
from a greater perception of similarities which lie on the surface than
of differences which are hidden from view. To bring sense under the
control of reason; to find some way through the mist or labyrinth of
appearances, either the highway of mathematics, or more devious paths
suggested by the analogy of man with the world, and of the world with
man; to see that all things have a cause and are tending towards an
end--this is the spirit of the ancient physical philosopher. He has no
notion of trying an experiment and is hardly capable of observing
the curiosities of nature which are 'tumbling out at his feet,' or of
interpreting even the most obvious of them. He is driven back from the
nearer to the more distant, from particulars to generalities, from the
earth to the stars. He lifts up his eyes to the heavens and seeks to
guide by their motions his erring footsteps. But we neither appreciate
the conditions of knowledge to which he was subjected, nor have the
ideas which fastened upon his imagination the same hold upon us. For he
is hanging between matter and mind; he is under the dominion at the same
time both of sense and of abstractions; his impressions are taken almost
at random from the outside of nature; he sees the light, but not
the objects which are revealed by the light; and he brings into
juxtaposition things which to us appear wi