Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to constructthe universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials.The unfinished companion piece, Critias , is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams.
- ISBN: 978-0-19-280735-9
- Editorial: Oxford University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 240
- Fecha Publicación: 01/11/2008
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés