Why the Cosmos Needs a Craftsman: Plato, Timaeus 27d5-29b1

Phronesis 59 (4):297-320 (2014)
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Abstract

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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10.1163/15685284-12341270

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Thomas Johansen
University of Oslo

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Causes and Conditions.J. L. Mackie - 1965 - American Philosophical Quarterly 2 (4):245 - 264.
Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity.David Sedley - 2007 - University of California Press.
Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato.Francis MacDonald Cornford - 1935 - Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing Company. Edited by Francis Macdonald Cornford.
Nature and Divinity in Plato's Timaeus.Sarah Broadie - 2011 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

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