Timaeus And Cosmos

The cosmos as we know is the essential structure and origin of the universe. The cosmos provide an understanding for how the world works. TImaeus presents a very interesting view of his idea on the structure and composition of the cosmos. Passages 28a and 28b of Timaeus accounts for Plato’s perspective on the creation of the world. As we read passage 28a… “What is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is that which becomes but never is?…..So whenever the craftsman 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.” Timaeus proposes that we live in a perpetually changing world where things that come into existence
only lasts for a certain period of time (reinforcement of this idea of change), and eventually perishes or dissolves as if it never existed. This idea also reinforces his stance that nothing arrives from nothing, everything must derive from something that was once in existence.
If the foundation for his argument is based on nothing being real because of the constant changing, then the only way for us to distinguish something that is real, it must be unchanging. If we live in an ever changing world, how do we know what’s real and what’s not? Well, it’s evident Timaeus regards the cosmos as a bodily form that must have been created. Although we know or think God is the creator, Timaeus has a different approach. In 28a, we see this word “craftsman,” and when that word comes to mind, I think of handiwork. He conceives that the physical world was created from manual labor hence his use of the word “craftsman.” Yes, the craftsman is the eternal God, was in concealment by a mask of manual labor. The creator was able to shape the world based off what was already pre-existing. To delve more on the physical aspect and composition of the cosmos, Timaeus gives rise that the shape is a sphere, that is orderly and proportionate which is pointed out in 33b. A sphere is the most beautiful shape that can be given because its proportionate as a result of being equidistant in any which direction one
chooses. This leaves no space for there to be unfairness.
As we know, nothing is created and just left alone. This bring the compensates for the composition part of the cosmos, or as we can say the “ingredients.” Plato writes in 32b of Timaeus, “Hence god set water, and air between fire and earth, and made them as proportionate to one another as was possible, so that what fire is to air, air is to water, and what air is to water, water is to earth.” The four elements subjugated is earth, wind, fire, and water are the fundamentals on which everything is based off of. The “craftsman” or creator established these elements as the components to show the tangibility of the cosmos for it to proportioned. While nothing can be visible without fire and nothing can be solid without earth, these two elements were put forth to evoke to solidity and visibility. However, there cannot be a bond between just two entities, as the bond must be harmonized. That’s when water and air were created, in order establish tranquility and
harmony. Just like that, the bodily form of the world was created and was proportionate. With proportionality surfacing, forces will be brought together creating harmony. When regarding Timeaus’s composition of the cosmos, we know he holds the four elements as the foundation of the body, however, philosopher Heraclitus seeks one particular element as the underlying substance of the world. As Heraclitus says in B30, “this cosmos, the same for all, none of gods not humans made but it was always and is and shall be an ever-living fire, kindled in measures and extinguished in measure.” It is evident Heraclitus is saying fire is the basic element needed for their to be dynamics as its the latent substance for the world. Everything is dependent on fire for existence and it will all feed off the elemental being of fire. Heraclitus has accepted fire as the only evident substance that will produce for an infinite and innocent world which is extinguished through what he says about an “ever living fire.”