"The Unique Worlds of the "Timaeus

Bibliographic Data

ID4883381
AuthorsRichard Patterson (0000-0002-8563-6053, corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume35
Issue2
Pages105
Publication date1981-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1087330
OpenAlexW2315635765
LanguageEN
Citations received15

T IMAEUS TAKES CARE to establish in the beginning of his account of creation that there is only one visible cosmos rather than many or an unlimited number. Briefly, his argument is that since the Demiurge's Intelligible Model is unique, and since the Demiurge made the visible world like the Model in this respect, the visible cosmos is also one-of-akind. This account of the matter raises two troublesome questions. First, why is the Intelligible Model unique? Second, why should uniqueness of the Model require uniqueness of its created image?-after all, every Form taken by any craftsman as a Model will be unique, but that is in general no reason for creating only one worldly image of the Model. On the contrary, a Platonic Form will ordinarily be a one over a many. Both questions appear to have significant implications for the theory of Forms itself. Timaeus' argument for uniqueness of the Model seems very like Socrates' argument in Reupublic X for the uniqueness of What-isCouch, and that argument may bear significantly on the great selfpredication debate (i.e., the controversy as to whether each Form taken as a Model or paradeigma is itself a paradigm case of the property for which it is the Form). And Timaeus' argument for uniqueness of the cosmos may reflect a failure to distinguish between different sorts of property possessed by a Form. His divine craftsman seems to want to copy certain properties of his Model, including its uniqueness, just because they are there. In so doing he neglects the distinction between properties the Model has because it is a Form and those it has because it is one particular Form rather than another-a distinction essential to sane craftsmanship and important for Platonic metaphysics.1 Regarding the first question, analysis of Timaeus' argument for uniqueness of the Demiurge's Model will show that the argument is valid, that it differs crucially from Socrates' uniqueness argument of Republic X, and that it has no bearing on the issues of self-predication. Uniqueness of

Epistemology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy

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