What is it about?

This chapter argues that generation (γένεσις) is a bona fide principle in Timaeus’ cosmology, as opposed to an outcome of the interaction of the other principles. In order to make this claim, it offers a programmatic plan of the beginning of the second part of Timaeus’s speech. It concludes that powers are the prime agents of generation. Whilst generation in the absence of the world amounts to powers causing different properties in portions of the bearer; in crafting the world the demiurge gives depth to these portions, turning them into prime bodies, which did not exist before the world was generated. Bodies are endowed with both the properties received by the bearer and the power to generate these properties; therefore, generation is the cause of the bodily motion of the world.

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Why is it important?

This chapter proposes that the topic of the second part of Timaeus’s speech (47e3ff.) is a thorough explanation of generation as a principle. This is not an easy claim to make, since its argument is long, obscure, with plenty of ambiguous Greek and a complex structure. It divides the text into sections and subsections, showing how they cohere and demonstrate the following: (i) generation is a first principle on its own; (ii) powers that are peculiar to generation are primitives, in the sense that they are neither caused by another agent nor a property of something; (iii) generation in the absence of the world amounts to powers causing different properties in portions of the bearer; (iv) in giving depth to these portions, the demiurge crafts prime bodies, which did not exist before the world was generated; (v) bodies in the world are endowed with both the properties received by the bearer and the power to generate these properties; (vi) generation is the cause of the corporeal motion of the world (as opposed to the motion of the world’s soul).

Perspectives

This paper contributes to the field by thoroughly examining Plato's intricate argument about the creation of the world from its primary elements. The resulting picture defies some of the most influential accounts.

Carolina Araujo
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

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This page is a summary of: Generation: A Programmatic Reading of Timaeus 47e3–58c4, January 2023, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-28198-3_8.
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