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Primary Thesis of the Timaeus

Explore Plato's Timaeus: the intelligent design of the cosmos according to eternal forms, showcasing order and beauty as indicators of intelligence.

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Primary Thesis of the Timaeus

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  1. Primary Thesis of the Timaeus The cosmos (world order) has been fashioned by an intelligent and benevolent being according to a model or paradigm, the eternal, immaterial, and unchanging world of the forms.

  2. There is a Cause of the Cosmos. (1) The cosmos came into existence. (2) Whatever comes into existence has a cause of its coming into existence. So (3) The cosmos has a cause of its existence. Cosmos = “orderly arrangement.” The argument does not imply the creation of the universe out of nothing. Creation of a system exhibiting order and beauty, regularities that may be expressed in mathematical language.

  3. The cause of the cosmos is intelligent. (3) The cosmos has a cause of its existence. (4) The cosmos is orderly and beautiful. (5) Order and beauty are indications of intelligence. So (6) The cause of the cosmos is intelligent.

  4. Creation according to an Eternal, Unchanging Model (6) The cause of the cosmos is intelligent. (7) Intelligence operates according to unchanging and eternal forms. So (8) The cause of the cosmos fashioned it according to unchanging and eternal forms.

  5. “Now, of necessity, everything that comes to be must come to be by the agency of some cause, for it is impossible for anything to come to be without a cause. So whenever the craftsman [demiurge] looks at what is always changeless and, using a thing of that kind as his model, reproduces its form and character, then, of necessity, all that he so completes is beautiful.” (28a-28c)

  6. Creation according to Benevolence (9) The demiurge is good. (10) That which is good desires other things with which to share its goodness. So (11) The demiurge created for the sake of sharing itself with other things.

  7. The Forms The Forms Demiurge “In the beginning there were forms, the void , and the demiurge. The cosmos was not yet fashioned. Out of goodness, he chose to make the cosmos after the forms, to make the cosmos an image of the eternal and unchanging.”

  8. Forms Demiurge

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