The Timaeus of Plato

INTRODUCTION.
Preplatonic
basis of
Platonism:
Herakleitos,
Parmenides,
Anaxagoras.
monstrous accretions which some of them superimposed,
is manifest
to any reader of Plotinos or Proklos. Such being the concordance
of ancient authorities, is it not worth while to inquire
whether they be not justified in attaching so profound a significance
to this dialogue?
The object of this essay is to establish that they were justified.
No one indeed can read the Timaeus, however casually, without
perceiving that in it the great master has given us some of
his profoundest thoughts and sublimest utterances but my aim
:
is to show that in this dialogue we find, as it were, the focus to
which the rays of Plato's thought converge; that by a thorough
comprehension of it (can we but arrive at this) we may perceive
the relation of various parts of the system one to another and
its unity as a whole: that in fact the Timaeus, and the Timaeus
alone,
enables us to recognise Platonism as a complete
and coherent
scheme of monistic idealism.
I would not be understood to maintain that Plato's whole
system is unfolded in the Timaeus; there is no single dialogue
of which that could be said. The Timaeus must be pieced
together with the other great critical and constructive dialogues
of the later period, if we are rightly to apprehend its significance.
But what I would maintain is that the Timaeus furnishes us with a
master-key, whereby alone we may
enter into Plato's secret chambers.
Without this it is almost or altogether impossible to find
in Platonism a complete whole ;
with its aid I am convinced
that this is to be done. I am far from undervaluing the difficulty
of the task I have proposed : but it is worth the attempt, if
never so small a fraction may be contributed to the whole result.
With this end in view, it is necessary to consider Plato's
intellectual development in relation to certain points in the history
of previous Greek philosophy. These points are all notorious
enough, but it seems desirable for our present purpose to bring
them under review.
2. Now it seems that if we would rightly estimate the task
which lay before Plato at the outset of his philosophical career
and appreciate the service he has rendered to philosophy, we
must throw ourselves back into his position, we must see with
his eyes and compute as he would have computed the net result
of preplatonic theorising. What is the material which his predecessors
had handed down for him to work upon? what are
the solid and enduring verities they have brought to light? and