The Timaeus of Plato

71 B] TIMAIOS. 263
then that always feeding at its stall and dwelling as far as
possible from the seat of counsel, it might produce the least
possible tumult and uproar and allow the noblest part to consult
in peace for the common weal, here they assigned
it its
place. And knowing that it would have no comprehension of
reason, and that even if it did in some way gain any perception
of rational thoughts,
it was not in its nature to take heed to
any such things, but that it would be entirely led away by
images and shadows both by night and by day, God devised as
a remedy for this the nature of the liver, which he constructed
and set in its dwelling place and he made it a body dense and
:
smooth and bright and sweet with a share of bitterness. This
he did to the end that the influence of thoughts proceeding
occupies the same position as Plato's Ov-
/j,ofi8s KarriKoov rov \6yov. This directly
hears and obeys the dictates of reason.
If a man is betrayed by his friend, the
declaration by the reason that such conduct
is immoral is at once responded to
by the Ovpofiits with a surge of indignation
against the friend's baseness. But
no such response would come from the
firi6u/j.ijTiK6i', which is incapable of understanding
the situation. The judgments
of the reason must therefore be conveyed
to it in the symbolic form which alone
appeals to it, by signs and visions, by
portents and presages and terrors. This
indirect communication has no place in
the statement of Aristotle, who would no
doubt denounce it as TrXaer/uoTwSe s.
It must
of course not be forgotten that Aristotle's
iri6u/j.i)TiK6v is not the same as Plato's.
A point worth noticing is a certain advance
in the psychology of the Timaeus
as compared with that of the Phaedrus.
In the latter the lowest elSos is
simply
appetitive ; but in the Timaeus it includes
the functions of nutrition and
growth. This is plain from 70 E olov
a.Tvr)i> K.T.X. ;
and also from the fact
that the rplrov el