Timaeus and Critias by Plato

Timaeus and Critias by Plato

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Summary

In Timaeus Plato attempts to describe and explain the structure of the universe: the creator god, the elements, the lower gods, the stars, and men. The companion piece, Critias, is the origin of the story of Atlantis, the lost empire defeated by ancient Athenians. This is the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts.

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Timaeus and Critias by Plato

'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.' Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the 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. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Robin Waterfield has translated numerous classics texts for OWC, including Plato's Republic, Synposium, Gorgias, and Phaedrus, The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists,, Aristotle's Physics, Herodotus' Histories, Plutarch and Euripides. In addition to Plato's Philosophy of Science, Andrew Gregory is the author of Harvey's Heart (Icon, 2000) and Eureka! the Birth of Science (Icon, 2001). His book Ancient Greek Cosmogony is published by Duckworth in December 2007.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780192807359
ISBN 10 0192807358
Title Timaeus and Critias
Author Plato
Series Oxford World's Classics
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year published 2008-11-13
Number of pages 240
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable