Timaeus

The aim of this paper is to challenge the claims that Plato's theodicy, if existent at all, is meager and undeveloped. In it I focus on the Timaeus alone, and after briefly examining the question why would an omnibenevolent God create a sensible world at all, try to extract three theodicean strategies from the dialogue. The first one is known as the Principle of Plenitude, and it professes to explain the abundance of life forms in the universe, some of which seem superfluous or unwanted. In the course of presenting this strategy, I also try to show that it can justifiably be ascribed to Plato, against Sarah Broadie's criticism. The second strategy is the Solution from Personal Responsibility, and it mainly aims at addressing the moral aspect of the problem of evil. The third and the last one I call the Coeval Entity Solution, and it discloses the Timaean Necessity as a cause of natural evils. I try to argue, against David Sedley, that Necessity is indeed of stubborn or recalcitrant nature.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the problem of soul in Plato’s Timaeus while paying due respect to its close connection with the topics of cosmology and cosmogony. The inquiry proceeds from the highest level of the cosmos itself to the lowest level of the souls of mortal beings. In the first chapter, an important question, whether the cosmos singularly came into being or not is being examined. In this context, two traditional approaches are distinguished and it is argued that a proper answer to this question has to contain some elements of them both.
The second chapter examines the nature of Plato’s maker of this world, the demiurge. It is argued that he is a primordial deity who should not be identified with any aspect of the created cosmos or the intelligible being and who not only creates the bodily world and its soul but serves as a sort of paradigm for the soul in respect to its capacities as well. The topics of soul and cosmos blend equally in the third chapter which is devoted to the world-soul. It concentrates on three main topics which are relevant also for the souls occupying a lower position in the hierarchy. These are the blending of the soul that explains its basic properties, the structuring of the soul and attributing it a particular motion and finally the problem of cognition and soul’s cognitive capacities.
The fourth chapter deals with a topic of the souls of astral and traditional gods which is being rather overlooked in literature. Because of the lack of information we get from Timaeus, the main question of this chapter is whether these gods have individual souls at all. The basic strategy to answer this question is to examine what these gods do. In accordance with the results of this inquiry, it is argued that the answer should be affirmative. Finally, the last chapter is devoted to the topic of the souls of mortal beings. After the investigation of the initial condition of these souls, the topic of their incarnation into mortal bodies is thoroughly examined. This section provides answers to various questions concerning for example the problem of so-called tripartition, the nature of the mortal kind of the soul or the means by which different kinds of soul communicate with each other. The whole chapter is concluded by the examination of the problem of reincarnation which explains the occurrence of animals.

I have been asked these questions many times. As a matter of fact, they are the most frequently asked questions – alongside with the location of Atlantis- for the last two decades, since I started publishing my investigation about Atlantis.

After all the evidence I have been able to gather over these years (epigraphic and paleographic evidence (written primary sources) and seismological evidence (new findings about seismic tsunamis around the Atlantic area and Gulf of Cadiz)), my most updated and rigorous reply – up to this very moment- is that the end of Atlantis, that is, when it was destroyed by a great seismic-tsunami cataclysm must have happened at some point between 2600 and 1550 BC (and it had nothing to do with volcanoes, as the reading of primary sources made clear). This is the most accurate time frame that I have been able to establish, according to the existing evidence and circumstantial proof. Atlantis timeline can be summarized as follows:

Atlanti

Until the Renaissance, the work of Calcidius offered the medieval West almost the only direct access to Plato’s corpus not dispersed in fragments. In the 4th century CE, Calcidius translated into Latin an important section of Plato’s Timaeus, complemented by extensive commentary and organized into coordinated parts. The first part is broadly devoted to the architecture of the world, to its intelligible structure. The second delves into the nature of the living creatures that inhabit it. This basic division subsequently informed the sense of macrocosm and microcosm—of the world and our place in it—which is prevalent in western European thought in the Middle Ages. At the same time, this medieval volume altered perspectives on Plato by drawing on other philosophical traditions, particularly the Stoic and Peripatetic, while including Judeo-Christian cosmology and anthropology. The present edition provides the first English translation of Calcidius’s work.

This article explores the concepts of eternity and time as employed by Plato in his metaphysics and natural philosophy. It focuses on the Timaeus, which is the main source used in the attempts to reconstruct Plato's theory of time and to gain insights into his understanding of time's paradigm and counterpart, i.e. eternity. The chief thesis regarding Plato's concept of eternity presented here is that Plato conceived of it not as infinite duration (sempiternity), but as timeless, unchanging present (eternity proper). It thus, in accordance with the original meaning of the Greek term for eternity (αἰών), signifies the state of being of the Forms. As far as time (χρόνος) and its nature is concerned, an attempt is made here to argue that Plato did not identify time with a) the heavenly sphere in motion, b) number, nor with c) motion in general, motion of the heavenly sphere, or motion of some of its part –as suggested by some ancient, as well as contemporary commentators. In fact, time is inseparable from motion, however not as being motion, but as being characterized by regular motion, through which it enlivens the world of Becoming and makes it what it is. So it turns out that Plato's somewhat poetic description of time as moving image of eternity is more than just a metaphorical expression – eternity, the state of being of the Forms, reflects itself into time, the never-ending-life of the universe in constant motion. Time, as every image, has to be imperfect and therefore, unlike its paradigm, entails permanent change and instability.

This paper addresses the following questions about Plato’s concept of ‘history’: first, a) is there a ‘philosophy of history’ in Plato’s thought?; second, b) if this concept exists, do the dialogues lay out a single, cohesive understanding of ‘history,’ or does it vary from text to text?; finally, c) how does Plato understand the word ‘history’? This inquiry also addresses the role of ‘progress’ in some of the main Platonic dialogues. An in-depth analysis of these texts can also help us find a solution to the problem of the end of ‘history,’ when a civilization either physically collapses (due to a catastrophic event) or morally decays (because of the corruption of its citizens and politicians). I argue that Plato’s ‘philosophy of history’ is not necessarily Sisyphean, but that it attempts to work out how to avoid the entropic decay of civilization and to preserve cultural—almost ‘genetic’—‘memory’ in order to counter the danger of cyclical regression.

This is a specimen of a new comprehensive volume on Plato's Timaeus. The volume includes: a substantial introductory essay by Franco Ferrari; a new critical edition, based on seven primary witnesses, a complete review of ad litteram quotations of the dialogue and a new assessment of ancient corrections of "A", a running commentary with technical notes and tables.

Plato exposed his later views about the natural world in the Timaeus where geometric solids appeared as an intriguing feature. A partial reconstruction as alchemy allows to show how mathematical properties and logical considerations play a dual role in his text.

In light of the Timaeus, I will assess Eusebius of Caesarea’s claim that Plato “has attained the porch
of [Christian] Truth”. 1 In analysing this claim, I will expose and then evaluate the more obvious
parallels to Christian doctrine and metaphysics that can be found in the Timaeus. My conclusion
is that I share Eusebius’s wonder of Plato. I am astounded at the consistency with which Plato
arrives at the same conclusions as Revealed Christian doctrine, especially in his marvellously
Christian metaphysics, the attributes of God, and his ordering and origins of the cosmos and his
belief in the singularity of the Demiurge as creator God

In the overall framework of Timaeus’ plausible account of how our universe acquired its present shape, the issue of planets is revelatory of the twofold nature of Timaeus’ task: Timaeus is invited to speak about the nature of the Whole and about the human nature. The paper suggests that the explanation of the origin and role of the planets is precisely where these two parts of the story meet and intersect as Timaeus passes from the immortal to the mortal living species. In the body of the paper, I limit myself to the role of planets and time within Timaeus’ cosmic story and leave aside a more metaphysical inquiry into time. A taste of such an inquiry is given in the Postscript, which offers some further remarks on how Timaeus speaks about time and what are some possible implications of his story for a more abstract treatment of it.

Besides the accounts or the legends of later Greek and Latin authors, what remains of Pythagoreanism as an Italic philosophy are a few fragments and some pseudonymous texts. In such conditions, the critical work plays a necessary role, but the interpretation is important as well. Probably, this is congenial with a pseudepigraphal production like that, originally understood not so much as a forgery, as rather like an “open source” wisdom.

In this article, we focus on Proclus’ commentary on Plato’s Timaeus (30a.3-6) about how the divine Demiurge intervenes in matter. It is an interesting extract due to the fact that Proclus manages to combine philosophical perspective with theological interpretation and scientific analysis. In the six chapters of the article, we present the theory on dualism established by the representatives of Middle Platonism, we approach the question of the production of the corporeal hypostases, we examine limit and unlimited as productive powers, we explain production in the sense of co-production as well as why matter without qualities is excluded from the entire procedure, and we discuss the principle of the supremacy of the supreme Principle. The most important conclusion drawn according to Proclus, who adopts moderate skepticism, is that, although in his early dialogues Plato tends to dualism, he does this for methodological purposes, for Plato’s views are actually connected with ontological monism.

The Stoic model of causality is developed against the background of the demiurgic model of the Timaeus. The Stoics define their god as a demiurge or a designing fire. However, the absence of any mention of a precosmic disorder in the Stoic cosmogony constitutes a great difference between the two models. The aim of this paper is to discuss how this absence shapes the Stoic demiurgic model and whether and to what extent it is still possible to call the Stoic model a ‘demiurgic model’. By ‘demiurgic model’ the Stoics understand the possibility of explaining the cosmos as the product of an intelligent god that acts aiming at the good. I shall claim that, while leaving aside several aspects of the Platonic Timaeus, the Stoics retain this core concept of a providential god. A further problem is raised by the question of intentionality: is it an essential feature of the demiurge? Can intentionality be attributed to the Stoic god? I will discuss how the Stoics make the demiurgic model interact with the biological and the physical models of causation, in order to convey the idea that god’s action is teleologically and providentially oriented.

In classical traditions of Mysticism special attention was devoted to the detailed study of authoritative religious texts and their allegorical symbolic meaning. However, this was often opposed to dogmatic church doctrines within institutionalized religious organizations which have led to the fact that many mystics were declared heretics and subjected to the inquisition.

Book Web site: https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-geschichte-hypothesen.htm - Second edition now in 2 volumes, with 235 additional authors. 420 additional references to literature have been included. Now there are ca. 1400 source-indicating footnotes, a bibliography with ca. 1000 entries, and an index of persons with ca. 1150 entries. - The history of Atlantis hypotheses now completely revised: * Finally all authors from Antiquity! * Finally a detailed discussion of the authors from Antiquity, doing justice to their statements, with all the secondary literature. * Additionally many until now unknown authors from Antiquity, who clearly allude to Plato's Atlantis without mentioning this explicitly. * For the first time many authors from the Middle Ages! * Many important yet until now unknown authors from the Renaissance until Modernity! Widely spread misconceptions concerning the history of Atlantis reception are rectified! * In Antiquity, Plato's Atlantis was not at all considered predominantly as an invention. * The Middle Ages was not at all silent about Atlantis. * The establishment of academic Atlantis skepticism did not happen until the 19th century and is based on the fiction of an allegedly matured academic theory. * The crazy explosion of localization hypotheses did not start until the end of the 19th century, and clearly not with the discovery of America. * Predominant misconceptions of Atlantis supporters as well as Atlantis skeptics concerning many authors are rectified. * Many pseudo-scientific speculations are rejected. Interesting details are clarified: * At the start and at the end of the Middle Ages, the debate about Plato's Atlantis played an important role in the battle between science and superstition. * The crazy explosion of localization hypotheses and the establishment of academic Atlantis skepticism are closely interrelated. * The alleged connection of National Socialism and Atlantis is meticulously analysed and disproved. * And much more.

Book Web site:
https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-geschichte-hypothesen.htm

The history of Atlantis hypotheses now completely revised:
* Finally all authors from Antiquity!
* Finally a detailed discussion of the authors from Antiquity, doing justice to their statements, with all the secondary literature.
* Additionally many until now unknown authors from Antiquity, who clearly allude to Plato's Atlantis without mentioning this explicitly.
* For the first time many authors from the Middle Ages!
* Many important yet until now unknown authors from the Renaissance until Modernity!

Widely spread misconceptions concerning the history of Atlantis reception are rectified!
* In Antiquity, Plato's Atlantis was not at all considered predominantly as an invention.
* The Middle Ages was not at all silent about Atlantis.
* The establishment of academic Atlantis skepticism did not happen until the 19th century and is based on the fiction of an allegedly matured academic theory.
* The crazy explosion of localization hypotheses did not start until the end of the 19th century, and clearly not with the discovery of America.
* Predominant misconceptions of Atlantis supporters as well as Atlantis skeptics concerning many authors are rectified.
* Many pseudo-scientific speculations are rejected.

Interesting details are clarified:
* At the start and at the end of the Middle Ages, the debate about Plato's Atlantis played an important role in the battle between science and superstition.
* The crazy explosion of localization hypotheses and the establishment of academic Atlantis skepticism are closely interrelated.
* The alleged connection of National Socialism and Atlantis is meticulously analysed and disproved.

With more than 1000 source-indicating footnotes, a bibliography with more than 550 entries, and an index of persons with ca. 750 entries.

Abstract: In his account of how the cosmos came to be, Timaeus describes its first cause as its ‘maker and father’ (Timaeus 28c). Modern readers of Plato have typically assumed that the image of demiurgy governs Plato’s conception of the causality at work in creation. But this leads to a problem in understanding the very substantial contribution of the secondary (created) gods. They are said to be creatively responsible for most of sublunary nature. Interpretative reactions include denying the autonomous creative agency of the secondary gods, or denying that they are really different from the demiurge. I argue that the image of fatherhood suggests a solution that is exegetically truer and philosophically more robust: the demiurge makes the whole cosmos by making it ‘in embryo’, as something that will go on to finish creating itself in his image. The secondary gods (who direct ‘growth’ as the soul does in a child, and may in fact be identical with the world soul) are genuinely creative – but in a way that does not challenge the claim the whole cosmos is the creation of the demiurge too.

This paper deals with two issues: (1) sequence of the central Dalmatian islands in the Periegesis which is different than in most other ancient sources, and (2) interpretation and evaluation of allegedly exceptional location of the island of Diomedes in the Periegesis. Comparative analyses indicate to special association of the island of Vis (Issa) with the Hyllaean Peninsula (Perieg.413), confirmed to a certain extent by Apollonius Rhodius (Argonaut. 4.565): Vis appears as the first of
the central Dalmatian islands from the north-west. Since the Periegesis explicitely mentions Timaeus (Perieg. 412), this author was most probably the first not only to mention and introduce the Hylleis and their peninusula to geographic knowledge of the time but also to emphasize
connections of this peninsula with Vis which seems to be a reflection of visual connections important for ancient sailors. We can also find analogous sequence with Vis in the first place (but without the Hyllaean Peninsula) in Strabo (2.5.20; 7.5.5). The second issue relates to the island of Diomedes in the Periegesis (431 – 433) mentioned in quite unexpected context according to certain opinions: it was mentioned
after Lake Lychnidos (Ohrid), which was a basis for hypothesis about the cult on the islet in Lake Prespa, far from the Adriatic. However more extensive analysis of the “Illyrian” passage indicates that all relational spatial designations refer to Illyris i.e. Illyrians meaning that there is no reason to look for the island of Diomedes outside the Adriatic (Palagruža). This work focuses on the geographical association of the island of Diomedes with the Illyrian land as the actual “anomaly” of the Periegesis, while all other sources associate the island with the nearest part of Italy, Apulia.

By editorial demand, now with extra footnotes! Final version accepted by Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy

This talk consists in a trick and a potential insight. The trick consists in a minimalist interpretation of color mixture. The account of color mixture is minimalist in the sense that, given certain background assumptions, there is no more to Timaeus' account of color mixture than the list of the chromatic pathēmata and the list of how these combine to elicit perceptions of all the colors. The only potential controversial elements of the minimalist interpretation are the relevant background assumptions and the interpretation of the chromatic pathēmata. The potential insight concerns a motive that Plato, in the guise of Timaeus, may have for presenting an account of color mixture. Specifically, I shall argue that on the minimalist interpretation, Plato may be read as reconciling the Democritrean four color scheme with an older tradition where white and black are the fundamental chromatic opposition. As we shall see, this bears on the interpretation of the chromatic pathēmata. Perception, for Timaeus, is a kind of measurement. Pathēmata-affections of the body as a whole or in part that are liable to produce perceptions or sensations-are the measure of the powers of the agents that produced them, and perception is the cognizance of what is measured, not the affections, but the powers that produced these affections. Sensible qualities, for Timaeus, then, are corporeal powers, powers to produce affections in sentient animate bodies. In the earlier discussion of vision (46c-47e), Timaeus says nothing specific about the powers of the agents that produce visual affections, nor does he say anything specific about the nature of these affections. With respect to the sunaitia, the auxiliary causes of vision, Timaeus largely confines himself to the construction of the visual body, opsis, that is the primary recipient of affection in the causal process of visual perception. Timaeus claims that the eye contains a fire within that is emitted through the pupil owing to its fineness. Timaeus claims, in addition, that this fire combines with daylight, akin to it, in the direction that the perceiver is looking, to form a body that may be acted upon as a homogenous unity. The present passage completes Timaeus' account of the suniaitia of vision. For here we are told about the powers of the agents that cause visual affections, namely the colors, and we are told about how the visual body is affected by these powers.

AbstrAct – Dionysius of Halicarnassus (History of Archaic Rome VII 3-11), deriving from Timaeus of Tauromenium, offers a detailed picture of the life and deeds of Aristode-mus of Cumae, and describes him as a «tyrant». The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Aristodemus, despite being a «demagogue» hated by the Cumaean aristocracy, was actually a king (βασιλεύς), with political, military and religious powers.

Book Web site:
https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis_syracuse.htm

Syracuse was the place where Plato tried to approach his ideal state in reality - and failed because of the decadence and unjustness of the city and its ruler. Indeed, Syracuse shares many similarities with Plato's Atlantis: Like Atlantis, it was situated on a large and fertile island in the west, a city of abundant wealth and power. As in Atlantis, the ruler's castle and magnificent temples were gathered on a small island. As in Atlantis, there were several harbors, quarries and walls encircling the city. And like Atlantis, Syracuse waged war with Athens.

But what sounds like a hot trail to decipher the enigma of Plato's Atlantis lay forgotten for a long time: As early as 1917, far ahead of his time, Gunnar Rudberg wrote this most coherent scientific analysis. The world did not, however, take notice of a Swedish text. Translated now for the first time, Rudberg's thesis is still a very good read on Plato's Atlantis, presenting not only one of the most credible solutions for Plato's Atlantis, but also offering an introduction to Atlantis research in general; the work confronts today's prevailing hypotheses with valuable criticism. Also included is a remarkable classification scheme of ancient and modern Atlantis hypotheses.

Gunnar Rudberg (1880-1954) was an internationally renowned Swedish classicist, Professor of Classical Philology and Greek Language and Literature at the universities of Oslo and Uppsala. Rudberg’s scientific works had Plato as their focus.

The narrative of Critias about the war between archaic Athens and Atlantis, which is found in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, is presented as a true logos in spite of having been invented by the philosopher. The characters' refusal of its status as a "myth" has intrigued many scholars that have written about this subject in order to
understand what Plato intended with this apparent contradiction. What genre of discourse it is is the first question to be faced by those that intend to interpret it. The reading of books II and III of the Republic brings light to the question as it shows the reflection of the author about
the creation of stories and its usefulness, and as it offers a discussion about important notions that occur in Critias' narrative, such as "myth" and "true discourse". The analysis of the narrative reveals elements that confirm the adequacy of the reading of the Republic, especially regarding the formulation that is elaborated there about the useful lie.
However, this is not sufficient for an understanding of the way Plato elaborates the story told by Critias, being necessary a comparison between the narrative's text and other genres of discourse used by the philosopher.

The main aim of this paper is to explain the nature of the maker of this cosmos, the demiurge, who is presented by Plato in his Timaeus. In the first chapter the reasons for Plato’s using of the demiurgic scheme are stated and it is made clear why the maker needs to be understood as distinct from his product. The next chapter deals with the actual making of the world and with the related question of likening the world to something. It is first claimed that in certain respects the world is being likened to the demiurge himself and this thesis consequently leads to a further inquiry into his nature. Since demiurge’s most important characteristics is his possession of νοῦς the text proceeds to an analysis of this concept and it’s relation to soul. In accordance with the results of this inquiry the demiurge is interpreted as a primordial non-bodily, non-ensouled, yet alive and intelligent deity who is a very peculiar part of the realm of eternal beings. The final chapter deals with the closely related question of the model to which the demiurge looks when making the world. It distinguishes between the holistic and non-holistic reading of the model and presents arguments in favour of the latter one.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of Plato’s Timaeus on Giordano Bruno’s philosophy of nature, also considering the Late Ancient tradition and Renaissance Hermetism. Moreover, the importance of such influence will be studied with regard to Bruno’s anti-Aristotelian issues of matter and of the infinity of worlds. In particular, Bruno declares to deduce from Timaeus of Locri and from Plato the theory of the continuous and mutual transmutation of the elements and the theory of homogeneity of matter. Furthermore, according to Neoplatonic tradition, Giordano Bruno attests that Plato admitted a multiplicity of worlds, and Bruno finds in the Timaeus an important source for a pluralistic cosmology; as a consequence of this, he will claim his theory of the existence of an infinite number of infinite universes.

Key words: Giordano Bruno, Timaeus, matter, form, causes, cosmos.

Readers are advised that an up-to-date discussion of the author's fundamental thesis (’The Idea’), on the origin, operation, and destiny of the World, is now found at the top of the main page under the rubric, Thematic Evolution and Prospect of 'The Idea.'

A substantial part of our work attempts to construct an adequate Theory of the Face. See 'The Soul of Life' (below) and other studies on the page, some of which remain in draft and others merely projected. (Five papers on this difficult subject are planned.)

Progressive and substantial concretion of the thesis has been recently demonstrated through focused studies (2018-2020), whose URLs are conveniently grouped below:

'The Spirit of War'
https://www.academia.edu/36536128/The_Spirit_of_War

'Carlyle and the Idea'
(https://www.academia.edu/37362600/Carlyle_and_the_Idea)

'The Last Day (Illustrated Essay)'
(https://www.academia.edu/41144933/The_Last_Day_Illustrated_Essay_)

'How the German Spirit Died (A History)'
(https://www.academia.edu/41745763/How_the_German_Spirit_Died_A_History_)

'How the Human Spirit Died (Meta-Analysis)'
(https://www.academia.edu/41985864/How_the_Human_Spirit_Died_Meta-Analysis_)

'Three Malefactors of the Communist Idea (Meta-Analytical Note)'
(https://www.academia.edu/42052811/Three_Malefactors_of_the_Communist_Idea_Meta-Analytical_Note_)

Our gradual (and still incomplete) conceptualization of absolute cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology in its modern (often microphysical) aspects, which has arisen quite organically over several years of detailed study, may be briefly encapsulated and characterized (A-T) for the reader as follows:

A. The Idea is the fundamental reality of the World, whose existence was clearly intuited (as “hypodoche”) by Plato, operationally defined by Boehme (first as “das Rad Gottes” and subsequently as “Eternal Nature”), organically articulated by Hegel (as “the Idea”), and finally discovered to be the locus of proto-being and foundation of living motion by means of 20th century microphysics (and accurately named by it “the color vacuum”). The electron is its projection into the finite. Field theory is its "physical" basis.

B. This definition of “substance” as a completely immaterial and literally infinite, self-related, hebdomadic-triadic system of actuality within the Idea at the fundament or basis of reality constitutes the greatest discovery of the human mind which, before the end of the 21st century, upon full comprehension, will completely revolutionize religion and therefore geopolitics, as well as pedagogy, paleontology, and biophysics.  The seat of the animating principle in organisms can now be described and explained.

C. Briefly, the research for this book involves the cosmology, cosmogony, and eschatology (destiny) of the world as the finite projection of the Eternal Idea. The Idea itself was created by the Triune Absolute Spirit as a finite-infinite field to manifest, reward, and punish moral, aesthetic, and intellectual performances in a Living Matrix.

D. Through the vast and distributed powers of its microphysical basis, the Idea as the created conduit of Absolute Power has autonomously generated a pseudo-history in geology and astronomy. The powers of Light and Darkness guided by Eternal Life deep within the fundament sustain the finite living motion of which we are aware through biology and empower conscious awareness in animals. Biopsychological functioning and all positive intellectual achievement in Mankind have their roots in the Idea.

E. Moreover, though unseen, the silent workings of a vast cosmological Absolute Hebdomad (deduced through study of the Idea in the 17th century) mercifully overarch and limit the Inchoate Life of the Sinister Itself--a Cosmic Disruptor also previously unsuspected that is responsible for the nocturnal Dream Life of animals. Is this a conceptual solution to the mysterious phenomena of telepathy and clairvoyance?

F. Biological and psychic life thus have always been suspended between two great cosmological powers representing a generalized War Between Infinite and Finite Life that began with King Lucifer, and which in its present form continually tests, through Contention, War, and Worldly Contrariety, the whole of Living Being as it follows a tortured and fateful course between Life and Death according to the much-lamented plan chosen by the Mind ("Gemüt") of Adam.

G. Finally, the hidden existence of the Idea necessarily implies a universal negative unity as the ideal origin of all gravitational and inertial phenomena, offering to science a solution at last to storied and continuing, completely beguiling conundrums (e.g., "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy") involving the ultimate structure of the cosmos.

H. By tracing the Idea's manifold determinations of physical, biological, and psychic being, then, the present study seeks to explicate the final, and heretofore unsuspected, links in the fabled Great Chain of Being for the edification of Mankind. Inherently opposing it, pathetically and even insanely, is guileless materialism.

I. The war of materialism against idealism eventually culminated in the death of the German Spirit (1918). The main intellectual cause of German spiritual morbidity, however, is traceable to events within the Reformation (1517-1546). This did not prevent a period of optimism within Prussian education and science (1800-1840).

J. The theft of Silesia (1946) was an intentionally demoralizing spiritual crime against Germany with major consequences for the spiritual life of the world. The German Spirit's whole turbulent career constituted a vacillation on renunciation of self-will, and this latter always was the essential content of the Absolute Mind in Germany.

K. Germany's fatal spiritual debility can be considered to be a world "contagion" that spread centrifugally from the center of Europe to the whole Human Race which, therefore, is itself now in the throes of an analogous spiritual death, self-contemplation, and deliverance from the finite. The Zero-Hour is imminent.

L. Each of the Six Days (in Moses) is now fundamentally understood to mean a thousand-year period. Thus, Creation has all along been continuous and--after 6,000 years--will soon be completed (the argument proposes a means to confirm or deny the asserted beginning of 3,970 B.C.). Thus, the Day of Rest (for the Community of Heaven) will soon arrive for the self-elect of Mankind.

M. This tortured path was, of course, divinely foreseen but nevertheless represents an accommodative posture which was not at first understood. The Creator's response achieves a wise and just outcome despite the wreck and pain arising from myopic creatural assertion and pathetic gratification, as recounted in the mosaic story of old.

N. In fact, Talmudic commentators reached this conclusion in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.--amending (in 'Sanhedrin 97a') the original mosaic interpretation of once-and-for-all Creation in favor of Continuous Creation with a clear Limit or End, specified as 6,000 years (each "day of creation," as mentioned above, being 1,000 years).

O. Thus, Moses (properly cogitated) was right but his dicta were for a long period taken wrongly--perforce leading the Christians astray through an accident of church history that remains a stumbling block up to the present day. See the author's 'The Last Day (Illustrated Essay).'

P. We know from modern physics that the "physical" world at the fundament is sustained by completely immaterial field relations that never cease, or else creation-in-process would not maintain itself. The creative motion is mathematically and physically infinite but disguises its own infinity--the chief insight, credited to Dirac, supporting Absolute Physics.

Q. Hence, it is now clear that the Creation--continuous since the beginning--is approaching its End and Goal. The Last Day is thus imminent and will arrive within the present decade, according to the wisest Christian view, this actually having been announced four centuries ago in German idealism.

R. The Eternal Word's role has always been to Shine Divinely (inwardly) in the gloom and darkness of the outward finite (the "Field of the Reprehensible") for salvation's sake (see 'Carlyle and the Idea'). It is this that Jesus of Nazareth spoke of, and it is this his followers embody, when they speak of the "true bread from heaven," etc..

S. This is why Christians can claim that the finalized ("Third") Temple of God is already in existence and is composed of living stones (minus the winnowed Condemned and Damned) whose essence will endure forever in God.

T. Our thesis is only now emerging in its final form. This is because the horizon of knowledge keeps receding as the true depth is revealed--the world is a set of nested dolls and the innermost doll is God, who is unknowably deep (but friendly, since we are Him in disguise when we abandon our finite wills).

Prof. Rhys Carpenter, Bryn Mawr College:
The Atlantis story as real Egyptian tradition of real historical events.
A climatic "Bond Event" as cause of the cultural
breakdown at the end of the bronze age.
https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-rhys-carpenter_engl.htm

In her 2014 monograph, Sarah Broadie argues that Timaeus's cosmology points to a radical Platonic insight: the full rationality of the cosmos requires the existence of individualized, autonomous, and finite beings like us. Only human life makes the cosmos truly complete. But can Timaeus do full justice to the uniquely human way of being and hence to his own insight? My paper argues that he cannot and that Plato means for us to see that he cannot, by showing how Timaeus treats a famous Platonic theme: eros. Timaeus describes human perfection as assimilation to the mathematical proportions of the cosmos, but by comparing Timaeus with the Symposium I show that, given his deeply mathematized conception of reason, Timaeus cannot provide what Diotima can: a phenomenologically satisfactory account of how we come to identify ourselves with this perfection. Such identification is a transformation in our self-understanding explicable only because of the desirous and reflexive character of the soul. Expressing this character, however, requires combining the mathematical with a poetic, or even mantic, register. Only these sensibilities together grant access to Plato's cosmology in its fullness. In the dialogue bearing his name, Timaeus is assigned two tasks. He must speak of the generation and nature of "the all" and specifically of human nature (27a4-6).11 Obviously, the tasks are related: an account of the all will hardly be complete without accounting for man as part of the all. Nevertheless, they are also distinct. It is one thing to be what Timaeus variously describes as a deathless, all-encompassing, and autarkic cosmos living a life of perpetual thought (36e3-5). It is another matter altogether to be a finite, needy, imperfectly rational being, 1

Analizaremos las características de los cinco poliedros regulares convexos que Platón describe en el Timeo y esclareceremos los siguientes problemas: primero, mientras los poliedros regulares son cinco, los elementos naturales son solo cuatro; segundo, la transformación de unos elementos en otros; tercero, las proporciones que rigen las mezclas de los elementos, y cuarto, las consecuencias de la propuesta platónica en dos problemas científico-filosóficos de ese momento: la causa del movimiento y la existencia o no del vacío.

Two anomalies call for attention in the text of the Timaeus. Readers, ancient and modem, have commented upon both anomalies, but, as I believe, have been unable to explain them.
The reason for their inability is a simple one. Comford and Taylor in our own day, Alcinoos and Proclus in the ancient world, fail to relate the 'myth' of the Timaeus to the preoccupations of the second quarter of the fourth century BC. They fail therefore to isolate the theories that Plato sought to counter.
But the error is not only an historical one. In failing to isolate the target of Plato's implied criticism, commentators, ancient and modem, have been unable to grasp an important part of the philosophical purpose of the Timaeus.
Published in: PLATO PHYSICUS. Cosmologia e antropologia nel Timeo, a cura di Carlo Natali e Stefano Maso - Amsterdam 2003.

Analizaremos las características de los cinco poliedros regulares convexos que Platón describe en el Timeo y esclareceremos los siguientes problemas: primero, mientras los poliedros regulares son cinco, los elementos naturales son solo cuatro; segundo, la transformación de unos elementos en otros; tercero, las proporciones que rigen las mezclas de los elementos, y cuarto, las consecuencias de la propuesta platónica en dos problemas científico filosóficos de ese momento: la causa del movimiento y la existencia o no del vacío.

This is an essay on perfection and its objects in the Timaeus. Two features of this work are noteworthy. First, the emphasis throughout is on Timaeus' views and not Plato's. Second, I show how broader aspects of Timaeus' cosmology are directly relevant to his philosophy of perception.

The article deals with the relationship between Jerome of Prague, a philosopher and a colleague of the church reformer Jan Hus, and the thought of John Wyclif. The first section of the essay presents the initial reception of Wyclif’s thought in Bohemia and its relation to the group of younger Czech masters at the Prague faculty of arts that included Hus and Jerome. The second section discusses contemporary sources related to Jerome’s attitude towards Wyclif, and demonstrates that according to Jerome’s own assertions, his reception of Wyclif’s thought was limited. The last section shows, on the basis of an analysis of Jerome’s texts, which of Wyclif's treatises influenced Jerome's texts. It also shows that although Wyclif’s doctrines significantly influenced the Prague philosopher, Jerome’s reception of these doctrines was far from absolute. There were other significant influences and sources Jerome did not find in Wyclif: for example Plato’s Timaeus and Calcidius’s commentary on it.

This was an invited presentation given at an International Conference on “Japanese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline,” Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, December 2011.  In this presentation I explicate the matter of Nishida’s dialectic from the standpoint of his mature thought, especially from the 1930s and 40s, by providing a reading of his concept of basho (place) in terms of chiasma and chōra, or a chiasmatic chōra.  His appropriation of nineteenth century German, especially Hegelian, terminology was inadequate in expressing what he strove to say. For his concept of basho confounds traditional metaphysical discourse.  I argue that because of its chiasmatic and chōratic nature, the Sache he strove to capture and express through the language of dialectical philosophy, perpetually slips away from any systemic bounds.  His “dialectic” (benshōhō) implies a chiasma or a criss-crossing of multiple factors on multi-dimensional levels that exceed in complexity binomial logical oppositions or the triadic formula of traditional dialectics.  The complexity is one of over-determination that threatens to undermine the very language of such a dialectic.  Nishida’s sense of mujun (contradiction) seems to point to a deep chiasma, the complexity of which exceeds, and hence is irreducible to, any mere logical contradiction between yes and no, being and non-being.  As the deep complexity of over-inter-determinations would deconstruct any notion of a substance, what Nishida offers -- as opposed to an ousiology (or logic of substance) -- is a chiasmology.  I thus argue that his so-called dialectic is really an unfolding of that chiasma.  And if chiasma expresses the over-determinate aspect of Nishida’s matter of thinking, chōra would express its under-determinate aspect.  Nishida himself based his concept of basho on Plato’s notion of the chōra from the Timaeus.  I take Nishida’s basho in its chōratic nature as what simultaneously unfolds and enfolds the chiasma.  But in the case of the chōra it is its under-determinate nature that refuses reduction to any of the terms of opposition.  In its self-withdrawal, it provides a clearing, a space, for the chiasmatic unraveling of the many.  Like the chiasma it undermines any claim to a first substance or the hegemony of a universal First.  For in its indeterminateness, it is “nothing” (mu).  The unfolding it enfolds is, as Nishida states, “a determination without determiner.”  Irreducible, in its over- and under-determinations, to being or non-being, Nishida’s basho qua mu is thus a chiasmatic chōra, proving furthermore to be the an-ontological origin of both on and meon (being and non-being).  In such ways I will discuss how his “absolute dialectic” (zettai benshōhō) might be characterized as a chiasmatic chorology.

Se analiza la relación de la teleología platónica y la fisiología médica de Alcmeón de Crotona y del  papel hígado en  el Timeo de Platón, su  función  en  el  cuerpo  y  su  relación con el alma apetitiva. A continuación, se explora la relación del hígado y el alma apetitiva  con el hombre tirano y la tiranía tal y como son caracterizados  en  la  República,  el  Timeo  y  las  Leyes, y la correspondencia entre fisiología, psicología  y  política.