文档介绍：TIMAEUS
TIMAEUS
by Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
1
TIMAEUS
INTRODUCTION AND
ANALYSIS.
Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and
repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest
influence over the ancient and mediaeval world. The obscurity arises in
the infancy of physical science, out of the confusion of theological,
mathematical, and physiological notions, out of the desire to conceive the
whole of nature without any adequate knowledge of the parts, and from a
greater perception of similarities which lie on the surface than of
differences which are hidden from view. To bring sense under the
control of reason; to find some way through the mist or labyrinth of
appearances, either the highway of mathematics, or more devious paths
suggested by the analogy of man with the world, and of the world with
man; to see that all things have a cause and are tending towards an end--
this is the spirit of the ancient physical philosopher. He has no notion of
trying an experiment and is hardly capable of observing the curiosities of
nature which are 'tumbling out at his feet,' or of interpreting even the most
obvious of them. He is driven back from the nearer to the more distant,
from particulars to generalities, from the earth to the stars. He lifts up his
eyes to the heavens and seeks to guide by their motions his erring
footsteps. But we neither appreciate the conditions of knowledge to
which he was subjected, nor have the ideas which fastened upon his
imagination the same hold upon us. For he is hanging between matter
and mind; he is under the dominion at the same time both of sense and of
abstractions; his impressions are taken almost at random from the outside
of nature; he sees the light, but not the objects which are revealed by the
light; and he brings into juxtaposition things which to us appear wide as
the poles asunder, because he finds nothing between them. He passes
abruptly from