Timaeus | Page 3

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This etext was prepared 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 wide as the poles asunder, because he finds
nothing between them. He passes abruptly from persons to ideas and numbers, and from
ideas and numbers to persons,--from the heavens to man, from astronomy to physiology;
he confuses, or rather does not distinguish, subject and object, first and final causes, and
is dreaming of geometrical figures lost in a flux of sense. He contrasts the perfect
movements of the heavenly bodies with the imperfect representation of them (Rep.), and
he does not always require strict accuracy even in applications of number and figure
(Rep.). His mind lingers around the forms of mythology, which he uses as symbols or
translates into figures of speech. He has no implements of observation, such as the
telescope or microscope; the great science of chemistry is a blank to him. It is only by an
effort that the modern thinker can breathe the atmosphere of the ancient philosopher, or
understand how, under such unequal conditions, he seems in many instances, by a sort of
inspiration, to have anticipated the truth.
The influence with the Timaeus has exercised upon posterity is due partly to a
misunderstanding. In the supposed depths of this dialogue the Neo- Platonists found
hidden meanings and connections with the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and out of
them they elicited doctrines quite at variance with the spirit of Plato. Believing that he
was inspired by the Holy Ghost, or had received his wisdom from Moses, they seemed to
find in his writings the Christian Trinity, the Word, the Church, the creation of the world
in a Jewish sense, as they really found the personality of God or of mind, and the
immortality of the soul. All religions and philosophies met and mingled in the schools of
Alexandria, and