We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2022
In the middle of it he placed Soul, extending it throughout the universe and then covering the body externally with it. (34b3–4)
The order of Plato's treatment of the question
God brings forth all things all at once (athroôs) and throughout eternity. For it is through his very being and through his eternal thinking of wholes that he engenders all the things that result from him – the totality of things both hypercosmic and encosmic: intellects, souls, natures, bodies and matter itself. If you ask me, demiurgic creation exhibits this ‘all at once’ aspect more than the Sun's illumination does. In the latter case, the entire light (to holon phôs) proceeds simultaneously from the Sun. But even though the Sun imitates the Father through visible (emphanês) creation, this is clearly inferior to the Father's eternal and invisible (aphanês) production. Therefore, as we said, though all things have come about from the act of creation eternally and all together (homou), nonetheless (homôs) the order of effects is still preserved; for all things proceed all together and each with its own order since there was present in that which produced it an eternal intelligence and an order prior to the things that have been ordered. Hence, even if all things result at once from one thing, nonetheless some of them are of primary worth while others have a lesser value. Some have proceeded to a greater, others to a lesser degree. Some have been joined together by the Demiurge through unification (kath’ henôsin), others through connection (kata synaphên), and still others through participation (kata methexin). So intellect is capable of being connate with intellect through unification. But soul naturally is able to be connected to intellect, while body is only able to participate; for example, even those things at the far end of the earth share in the radiance of the Sun.
Among all the things in the cosmos – intellect, soul and body – although it is the case that all of them have proceeded all at once, there nonetheless exists among these things the order which comes down from the Demiurge, and for this reason [Timaeus’] account at one time starts from above in the mode of procession and ends at the limit of creation,
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
