Timaeus: Translation. Glossary, Appendices and Introductory Essay

plato peter kalkavage

This is an English translation of Plato's dialogue concerning speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. An extensive introduction provides careful insights to the reading of the work, the nature of Platonic dialogue and the cultural background of the Timaeus. Appendices on music, astronomy and geometry further provide guidance to the central thoughts of the dialogue. The glossary provides cross references and discussion for key words in the dialogue, functioning as springboards into the various concepts and ideas that are central to this and other Platonic dialogues and are useful starting points for any classroom discussion or personal thought. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Plato’s immediate audience.

Genres philosophyclassicsnonfictionscienceancienthistoryreligiongreecemythologyancient history

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,-0360

Places

greece, atlantis,

This edition

Format: 100 pages, Paperback
Published: June 15, 2001 by Focus
ISBN: 9781585100071
ASIN: 1585100072
Language: English

Characters More characters

Phaëton

In Greek mythology, Phaëton was the son of the sun-god Helios. When Phaeton ("the shining one") finally learned who his father was, he went east to meet him. He induced his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens for one day...
Socrates (philosopher)

A classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the play...
Critias

Critias (c. 460 – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian political figure and author. Born in Athens, Critias was the son of Callaeschrus and a first cousin of Platos mother Perictione. He became a leading and violent member of the Thirty Tyrants. He also ...
Solon (of Athens)

Solon (c. 638 – c. 558 BC) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in archaic Athens. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often cr...
Timaeus Of Locri

Timaeus of Locri is a character in two of Platos dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. In both, he appears as a philosopher of the Pythagorean school. If there ever existed a historical Timaeus of Locri, he would have lived in the fifth century BC, but hi...
Hermocrates

Hermocrates (c. 5th century – 407 BC) was an ancient Syracusan general during the Athenians Sicilian Expedition in the midst of the Peloponnesian War. He is also remembered as a character in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues of Plato. more...

About the author

plato

Plato (Greek: Πλάτων), born Aristocles (c. 427 – 348 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism.
Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.
Along with his teacher Socrates, and Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of philosophy. Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."