Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, Vol. I

PROCLUS ON THE TIMAEUS BOOK III [Tim. 31 B]

The argument will unfold as it proceeds. For now, let us say that since the world is dimensional extended in space and perceptible by the senses, it is known through both sight and touch; as a whole, it is visible by being filled throughout with light, and it is tangible by being solid.
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For it is sufficient for the world to encompass all sensible things through these particular senses. And it is the case that among the four elements always existing in the world, these are understood as opposites: the visible and the tangible. For these are furthest apart from one another and yet fall under the same genus category,
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making them opposites. For both are sensible—and this is their
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common genus—yet they are furthest apart, since one is immediately sensible sight, while the other is not immediately so touch, which requires physical contact. But if we were to seek the opposites among the elements in terms of their changeability, we would not say fire and earth, but rather fire and water. For it is water, above all, that extinguishes fire. And each of these arguments is true.
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What is common to both is the placement of the opposition at the extremes, and in this the various schools of thought agree: that among sensible things, earth is the opposite of fire, but among changeable things, water is the opposite of fire. This is why Plato himself contrasted the visible with the tangible, taking the elements as sensible things, as he was
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not yet examining their transformation—in which case water is more opposed to fire than earth is. And the argument is not "incomplete," as Theophrastus Aristotle's successor supposes. For he raises the following difficulty: "Why on earth did he call visibility the unique property of fire and tangibility the property of earth, but gave no property to the remaining elements?" We
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therefore say to him that we ourselves see the world and touch it, but we no longer "taste" or "hear" or "smell" the world as a whole; and the world itself is both visible and tangible to itself. Insofar as it is light-like, it is visible, seeing itself through the divine light which is stretched through the whole heaven,
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being similar to a rainbow, as Socrates says in the Republic [Book X, 616 B]. For that light is what is primarily capable of being seen, extending through the whole—

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Critical apparatus noting manuscript variations and scholarly emendations by Kroll, Diels, and others regarding the Greek text.

6 perhaps always being... 7 understood [as neuter]... 11 if we were to seek... 16 of this [feminine]... 19 where [deleted by Diels]... 21 see Taurus in Philoponus... 29 is arranged... 31 visible...