Timaeus
by Plato
- Pages
- about 264
- Category
- Philosophy
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4.8 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
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 wide as the poles asunder, because he finds nothing
between them.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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