Plato: Philosophy of Science

Edited by Douglas R. Campbell (University of Toronto, St. George Campus, Alma College)
About this topic
Summary For the purposes of Philpapers.org, we understand Plato's "philosophy of science" to be basically what scholars sometimes call "natural philosophy" and "the philosophy of nature." Accordingly, Plato's philosophy of science is not centered around the sorts of topics that are researched by philosophers of science today: e.g., theory choice, scientific realism, and so on. (This is not the claim that Plato is entirely uninterested in these topics or that they are excluded from his natural philosophy altogether.) Instead, we understand Plato's philosophy of science as his research into, among other topics, biology, cosmology, medicine, teleology, and so on. His arguments on these topics can be found throughout the corpus but most of all in the Timaeus.
Key works Gregory 2000 talks about Plato's philosophy of science as "philosophy of science." Johansen 2004 and Broadie 2011 are two very important 21st-century books on Plato's natural philosophy.
Introductions Cornford 1935 is an invaluable commentary on the Timaeus that introduces (and more than introduces) virtually all of Plato's natural philosophy.
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  1. Mathias Baltes: Die Weltentstehung des platonischen Timaios nach den antiken Interpreten, Teil I. (Philosophia Antiqua, 30. Pp. xiii + 247. Leiden: Brill, 1976. Paper, fl. 45. [REVIEW]G. B. Kerferd - 1979 - The Classical Review 29 (2):316-316.
  2. A triptych in Plato's timaeus: A note on the receptacle passage.T. K. Johansen - 2015 - Classical Quarterly 65 (2):885-886.
    At Timaeus 48e2–52d4 Timaeus sets out to establish that there are three principles or kinds underlying the creation of the cosmos, not just the two he acknowledged earlier. The way he does so is not simply by adding an account of the third kind to the accounts of being and becoming that he has already given. Rather he does so by showing how each of the three differs from the others. It has not been noticed how this procedure structures the (...)
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  3. Plato's Philosophy And The Essence Of The Scientific Method.Jan Such - 2003 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 79:37-42.
  4. Gabriela Roxana Carone, Plato's Cosmology and Its Ethical Dimensions. [REVIEW]Michael Morgan - 2007 - Philosophy in Review 27:246-247.
  5. Body, Soul and Tripartition in Plato's Timaeus.Thomas Johansen - 2000 - In David Sedley (ed.), Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume Xix Winter 2000. Clarendon Press. pp. 87-111.
  6. Socratic Virtue: Making the Best of the Neither-Good-Nor-Bad (review).Sara Ahbel-Rappe - 2008 - Classical World: A Quarterly Journal on Antiquity 101 (4):550-551.
  7. rec.: T.K. Johansen, Plato's Natural Philosophy. A Stdy of the TImaeus-Critias (Cambridge 2005).Mauro Bonazzi - 2006 - Rivista di Storia Della Filosofia 61:1062-1065.
  8. A tenth-century arabic interpretation of Plato's cosmology.Majid Fakhry - 1968 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 6 (1):15.
Plato: Exact Sciences
  1. Perception and Perceptual Judgment in Plato’s Theaetetus and Timaeus.Lea Aurelia Schroeder - 2022 - Dissertation, Yale University
  2. Proportionate Atomism: Solving the Problem of Isomorphic Variants in Plato’s Timaeus.Lea Aurelia Schroeder - 2023 - Phronesis 68 (1):31-61.
    The principles governing elemental composition, variation, and change in Plato’s Timaeus appear to be incompatible, which has led commentators to prioritize some of the principles to the exclusion of others. Call this seeming incompatibility the problem of isomorphic variants. In this paper, I develop the theory of proportionate atomism as a solution to this problem. Proportionate atomism retains the advantages of rival interpretations but allows the principles of material composition, variation, and change to combine into an internally coherent and explanatorily (...)
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  3. Irrigating Blood: Plato on the Circulatory System, the Cosmos, and Elemental Motion.Douglas Campbell - forthcoming - Journal of the History of Philosophy.
    This article concerns the so-called irrigation system in the Timaeus’ biology (77a-81e), which replenishes our body’s tissues with resources from food delivered as blood. I argue that this system functions mainly by the natural like-to-like motion of the elements and that the circulation of blood is an important case study of Plato’s physics. We are forced to revise the view that the elements attract their like. Instead, similar elements merely tend to coalesce with each other in virtue of their tactile (...)
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  4. Located in Space: Plato’s Theory of Psychic Motion.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Ancient Philosophy 42 (2):419-442.
    I argue that Plato thinks that the soul has location, surface, depth, and extension, and that the Timaeus’ composition of the soul out of eight circles is intended literally. A novel contribution is the development of an account of corporeality that denies the entailment that the soul is corporeal. I conclude by examining Aristotle’s objection to the Timaeus’ psychology and then the intellectual history of this reading of Plato.
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  5. The Soul’s Tomb: Plato on the Body as the Cause of Psychic Disorders.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Apeiron 55 (1):119-139.
    I argue that, according to Plato, the body is the sole cause of psychic disorders. This view is expressed at Timaeus 86b in an ambiguous sentence that has been widely misunderstood by translators and commentators. The goal of this article is to offer a new understanding of Plato’s text and view. In the first section, I argue that although the body is the result of the gods’ best efforts, their sub-optimal materials meant that the soul is constantly vulnerable to the (...)
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  6. Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul.Douglas R. Campbell - 2021 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 59 (4):523-544.
    I argue that Plato believes that the soul must be both the principle of motion and the subject of cognition because it moves things specifically by means of its thoughts. I begin by arguing that the soul moves things by means of such acts as examination and deliberation, and that this view is developed in response to Anaxagoras. I then argue that every kind of soul enjoys a kind of cognition, with even plant souls having a form of Aristotelian discrimination (...)
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  7. Astronomy and Observation in Plato's Republic.Andrew Gregory - 1996 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 27 (4):451-471.
    Plato's comments on astronomy and the education of the guardians at Republic 528e ff have been hotly disputed, and have provoked much criticism from those who have interpreted them as a rejection or denigration of observational astronomy. Here I argue that the key to interpreting these comments lies in the relationship between the conception of enquiry that is implicit in the epistemological allegories, and the programme for the education of the guardians that Plato subsequently proposes. We have, I suggest, been (...)
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  8. Plato's Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias.Thomas Kjeller Johansen - 2004 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
    Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented (...)
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  9. Plato's Astronomy.Ivor Bulmer-Thomas - 1984 - Classical Quarterly 34 (01):107-.
    In one of the most disputed passages of Greek literature Plato in the Republic, 7. 528e–530c prescribes astronomy as the fourth study in the education of the Guardians. But what sort of astronomy? According to one school of thought it is a purely speculative study of bodies in motion having no relation to the celestial objects that we see. While this interpretation has rejoiced the hearts of Plato's detractors, who regard him as an obstacle to the progress of science, it (...)
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  10. Plato as "Architect of Science".Leonid Zhmud - 1998 - Phronesis 43 (3):211-244.
    The figure of the cordial host of the Academy, who invited the most gifted mathematicians and cultivated pure research, whose keen intellect was able if not to solve the particular problem then at least to show the method for its solution: this figure is quite familiar to students of Greek science. But was the Academy as such a center of scientific research, and did Plato really set for mathematicians and astronomers the problems they should study and methods they should use? (...)
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Plato: Teleology
  1. From Craft to Nature: The Emergence of Natural Teleology.Thomas Johansen - 2020 - In The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 102-120.
    A teleological explanation is an explanation in terms of an end or a purpose. So saying that ‘X came about for the sake of Y’ is a teleological account of X. It is a striking feature of ancient Greek philosophy that many thinkers accepted that the world should be explained in this way. However, before Aristotle, teleological explanations of the cosmos were generally based on the idea that it had been created by a divine intelligence. If an intelligent power made (...)
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  2. Irrigating Blood: Plato on the Circulatory System, the Cosmos, and Elemental Motion.Douglas Campbell - forthcoming - Journal of the History of Philosophy.
    This article concerns the so-called irrigation system in the Timaeus’ biology (77a-81e), which replenishes our body’s tissues with resources from food delivered as blood. I argue that this system functions mainly by the natural like-to-like motion of the elements and that the circulation of blood is an important case study of Plato’s physics. We are forced to revise the view that the elements attract their like. Instead, similar elements merely tend to coalesce with each other in virtue of their tactile (...)
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  3. Timaeus in the Cave.Thomas Johansen - 2013 - In G. Boys-Stones, C. Gill & D. El-Murr (eds.), The Platonic Art of philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
    Unitarianism was the norm amongst ancient interpreters of Plato. One strategy they used to maintain the unity of his thinking was to argue that different works were saying the same things but in different modes. So, for example, the Republic was saying ethically what the Timaeus was saying in the manner of natural philosophy. In this paper, I want to offer an interpretation of the Cave image in Republic 7 which lends support to this division of labour, and so indirectly, (...)
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  4. Evil, Demiurgy, and the Taming of Necessity in Plato’s Timaeus.Elizabeth Jelinek & Casey Hall - 2022 - International Philosophical Quarterly 62 (1):5-21.
    Plato’s Timaeus reveals a cosmos governed by Necessity and Intellect; commentators have debated the relationship between them. Non-literalists hold that the demiurge, having carte blanche in taming Necessity, is omnipotent. But this omnipotence, alongside the attributes of benevolence and omniscience, creates problems when non-literalists address the problem of evil. We take the demiurge rather as limited by Necessity. This position is supported by episodes within the text, and by its larger consonance with Plato’s philosophy of evil and responsibility. By recognizing (...)
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  5. Located in Space: Plato’s Theory of Psychic Motion.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Ancient Philosophy 42 (2):419-442.
    I argue that Plato thinks that the soul has location, surface, depth, and extension, and that the Timaeus’ composition of the soul out of eight circles is intended literally. A novel contribution is the development of an account of corporeality that denies the entailment that the soul is corporeal. I conclude by examining Aristotle’s objection to the Timaeus’ psychology and then the intellectual history of this reading of Plato.
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  6. The Cosmological Argument & the place of Contestation in Philosophical Discourse: From Plato & Aristotle to Contemporary Debates.Scott Ventureyra - 2016 - Maritain Studies/Etudes Maritainiennes 32 (1):51-70.
    In this paper, I examine three significant periods of the cosmological argument which exemplify the importance of contestation: first, Plato’s and Aristotle’s formulation of it, second, Philoponus’ own reactions and influence, third, the contemporary state of such discourses. Contestation has an inestimable role in philosophical development and reflection, as will be demonstrated through the examination of such periods.
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  7. Before the Creation of Time in Plato’s Timaeus.Daniel Vázquez - 2022 - In Daniel Vázquez & Alberto Ross (eds.), Time and Cosmology in Plato and the Platonic Tradition. pp. 111–133.
    I defend, against its more recent critics, a literal, factual, and consistent interpretation of Timaeus’ creation of the cosmos and time. My main purpose is to clarify the assumptions under which a literal interpretation of Timaeus’ cosmology becomes philosophically attractive. I propose five exegetical principles that guide my interpretation. Unlike previous literalists, I argue that assuming a “pre-cosmic time” is a mistake. Instead, I challenge the exegetical assumptions scholars impose on the text and argue that for Timaeus, a mere succession (...)
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  8. The Soul’s Tool: Plato on the Usefulness of the Body.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Elenchos 43 (1):7-27.
    This paper concerns Plato’s characterization of the body as the soul’s tool. I take perception as an example of the body’s usefulness. I explore the Timaeus’ view that perception provides us with models of orderliness. Then, I argue that perception of confusing sensible objects is necessary for our cognitive development too. Lastly, I consider the instrumentality relationship more generally and its place in Plato’s teleological worldview.
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  9. Plato on Natural Kinds: The Promethean Method of the Philebus.John Proios - 2022 - Apeiron 55 (2):305-327.
    Plato’s invention of the metaphor of carving the world by the joints gives him a privileged place in the history of natural kind theory in philosophy and science; he is often understood to present a paradigmatic but antiquated view of natural kinds as possessing eternal, immutable, necessary essences. Yet, I highlight that, as a point of distinction from contemporary views about natural kinds, Plato subscribes to an intelligent-design, teleological framework, in which the natural world is the product of craft and, (...)
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  10. Plato's Theory of Reincarnation: Eschatology and Natural Philosophy.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Review of Metaphysics 75 (4):643-665.
    This paper concerns the place of Plato’s eschatology in his philosophy. I argue that the theory of reincarnation appeals to Plato due to its power to explain how non-human animals came to be. Further, the outlines of this theory are entailed by other commitments, such as that embodiment disrupts psychic functioning, that virtue is always rewarded and vice punished, and that the soul is immortal. I conclude by arguing that Plato develops a view of reincarnation as the chief tool that (...)
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  11. The Soul’s Tomb: Plato on the Body as the Cause of Psychic Disorders.Douglas R. Campbell - 2022 - Apeiron 55 (1):119-139.
    I argue that, according to Plato, the body is the sole cause of psychic disorders. This view is expressed at Timaeus 86b in an ambiguous sentence that has been widely misunderstood by translators and commentators. The goal of this article is to offer a new understanding of Plato’s text and view. In the first section, I argue that although the body is the result of the gods’ best efforts, their sub-optimal materials meant that the soul is constantly vulnerable to the (...)
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  12. Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul.Douglas R. Campbell - 2021 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 59 (4):523-544.
    I argue that Plato believes that the soul must be both the principle of motion and the subject of cognition because it moves things specifically by means of its thoughts. I begin by arguing that the soul moves things by means of such acts as examination and deliberation, and that this view is developed in response to Anaxagoras. I then argue that every kind of soul enjoys a kind of cognition, with even plant souls having a form of Aristotelian discrimination (...)
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  13. Teleology, Causation and the Atlas Motif in Plato's Phaedo.Daniel Vazquez - 2020 - Schole 14 (1):82-103.
    In this paper, I propose a new reading of Phaedo 99b6-d2. My main thesis is that in 99c6-9, Socrates does not refer to the teleological αἰτία but to the αἰτία that will be provided by a stronger ‘Atlas’ (99c4-5). This means that the passage offers no evidence that Socrates abandons teleology or modifies his views about it. He acknowledges, instead, that he could not find or learn any αἰτία stronger than the teleological one. This, I suggest, allows an interpretation of (...)
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  14. Teleology: A History.Jeffrey K. McDonough (ed.) - 2020 - New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press.
    This volume explores the intuitive yet puzzling concept of teleology as it has been treated by philosophers from the time of Plato and Aristotle to the present day. Philosophical discussions are enlivened and contextualized by reflections on the implications of teleology in medicine, art, poetry, and music.
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  15. Zur Geschichte der teleologischen Naturbetrachtung bis auf Aristoteles. By Willy Theiler. Pp. ix + 104. Zürich: Füssli, 1925. Fr. 6 (M. 4.80). [REVIEW]J. L. Stocks - 1925 - The Classical Review 39 (7-8):210-210.
  16. Plato’s Cosmology and its Ethical Dimensions—Gabriela Roxana Carone. [REVIEW]Dana Miller - 2007 - International Philosophical Quarterly 47 (4):498-500.
  17. One Book, the Whole Universe: Plato’s Timaeus Today, Eds. Richard D. Mohr and Barbara M. Sattler. [REVIEW]Jason W. Carter - 2012 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86 (1):170-173.
  18. Plato's Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias.Thomas Kjeller Johansen - 2004 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
    Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented (...)
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  19. "Technē" and Teleology in Plato's "Gorgias".Lee Franklin - 2005 - Apeiron 38 (4):229-256.
  20. Why the Cosmos Needs a Craftsman: Plato, Timaeus 27d5-29b1.Thomas Kjeller Johansen - 2014 - Phronesis 59 (4):297-320.
    In his opening speech, Timaeus argues that the cosmos must be the product of a craftsman looking to an eternal paradigm. Yet his premises seem at best to justify only that the world could have been made by such a craftsman. This paper seeks to clarify Timaeus’ justification for his stronger conclusion. It is argued that Timaeus sees a necessary role for craftsmanship as a cause that makes becoming like being.
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  21. Making the World Body Whole and Complete: Plato's Timaeus, 32c5-33b1.Brad Berman - 2016 - International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 10 (2):168-192.
    Plato’s demiurge makes a series of questionable decisions in creating the world. Most notoriously, he endeavors to replicate, to the extent possible, some of the features that his model possesses just insofar as it is a Form. This has provoked the colorful complaint that the demiurge is as raving mad as a general contractor who constructs a house of vellum to better realize the architect’s vellum plans (Keyt 1971). The present paper considers the sanity of the demiurge’s reasoning in light (...)
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  22. Socrates’ Place in the History of Teleology.David N. Sedley - 2008 - Elenchos 29 (2):317-334.
  23. Plato's Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias. [REVIEW]Daryn Lehoux - 2008 - British Journal for the History of Science 41 (1):129-130.
  24. The Failure of Evolution in Antiquity.Devin Henry - forthcoming - In Georgia Irby (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Ancient Science, Medicine and Technology. Wiley-Blackwell.
    The intellectual history of evolutionary theory really does not begin in earnest until the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century. Prior to that, the idea that species might have evolved over time was not a serious possibility for most naturalists and philosophers. There is certainly no substantive debate in antiquity about evolution in the modern sense. There were really only two competing explanations for how living things came to have the parts they do: design or blind chance. Ancient Greek Atomism, for example, (...)
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  25. Gabriela Roxana Carone, Plato's Cosmology and Its Ethical Dimensions Reviewed by.Michael L. Morgan - 2007 - Philosophy in Review 27 (4):246-247.
  26. Teleology and the Good in Plato's Phaedo.David Wiggins - 1986 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 4:1-18.
  27. Forms and Causes in Plato's Phaedo.Christopher Byrne - 1989 - Dionysius 13:3-15.
    Gregory Vlastos has argued that Aristotle and other commentators on the Phaedo have mistakenly interpreted Plato’s Forms to be efficient causes. While Vlastos is correct that the Forms by themselves are not efficient causes, because of his neo-Kantianism he has misunderstood the close connection between the Forms and the explanation of change, including teleological change. This paper explores the connection in Plato’s Phaedo between the Forms, the nature of change, and efficient causality, and argues that Aristotle’s remarks are not as (...)
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  28. Plato's Cosmic Teleology.Gábor Betegh - 2005 - Rhizai. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 2:255-269.
    A Critical Notice of Thomas KjellerJohansen, Plato’s Natural Philosophy. A Study of the Timaeus-Critias.
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  29. Cosmological Ethics in the Timaeus and Early Stoicism.Gabor Betegh - 2003 - In David Sedley (ed.), Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Volume Xxiv: Summer 2003. Oxford University Press. pp. 273-302.
  30. Technique and teleology in plato's rhetoric.Doug Al-Maini - 2005 - The European Legacy 10 (4):283-298.
    This paper is an investigation of the place of rhetoric in Plato's judgement that philosophers must rule. The possibility that rhetoric could facilitate the rule of philosophy raises the question of whether rhetoric could also be used to undermine the governance of philosophy. It is my thesis that Plato argues for understanding rhetoric as limited in its ability to function at cross-purposes to those of philosophy because of a basic and direct relationship between the effectiveness of rhetoric and its ability (...)
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  31. Plato’s Natural Philosophy. [REVIEW]John Dillon - 2006 - Ancient Philosophy 26 (2):408-411.
  32. Optimality and Teleology in Aristotle's Natural Science.Devin Henry - manuscript
    In this paper I examine the role of optimality reasoning in Aristotle’s natural science. By “optimality reasoning” I mean reasoning that appeals to some conception of “what is best” in order to explain why things are the way they are. We are first introduced to this pattern of reasoning in the famous passage at Phaedo 97b8-98a2, where (Plato’s) Socrates invokes “what is best” as a cause (aitia) of things in nature. This passage can be seen as the intellectual ancestor of (...)
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