Commentary on Plato's Timaeus

Following the discussion of matter, the natural philosopher investigated matter, form, and generation, or some principle within a body; and why they have been concerned with the place and the productive cause original: "ποιητικῶ αἰτίω" (poietiko aitio). The cause that brings something into being, like a craftsman making a bowl.. For in this way, one might blame the death of each thing by speaking of its components. But the schools of thought concede that these things are responsible for movement and are the masters of practical reasons. For among the things they have made, they are the causes and the best for all to become. He says that according to Plato, the Demiurge acts with appropriate causes original: "οἰκείων αἰτιῶν" (oikeion aition). These are the secondary or instrumental causes that the primary Creator uses to organize the world.. He says that while some dispute the causes within that theory, others say the causal element is different, or how the "Good" or God himself is the causal element of the things being sought. Or, they declare that bodily things are the causes of rest. However, they are not lying or merely perceiving these things; they are handing down such matters from the study of natural things. At what point does one demonstrate the form of a servant serving these things? These are the works; first, this is named among the generative causes original: "γεωργικῶν αἰτίων" (georgikon aition). Literally "agricultural causes," a Neoplatonic metaphor for how the gods "cultivate" and "plant" forms into the physical world., or the productive ones: the paradigms original: "παραδείγματα" (paradeigmata). The eternal, perfect models after which the physical world is patterned.. For art, and because of these things, would not even aim at every creative and productive cause. One must tremble, for how the others follow this; for it is either to make, or it is the paradigms. For neither is man nor the world created except from that power of his. And clearly, by the paradigm, it becomes dear through order. As if someone, by these things, holds the opinion of the productive cause, he is equally sustained by them, both in the act of composing and in thinking thus; for this is what they attribute as? the cause. If you should hand it over, the Demiurge original: "δημιουργὸς" (demiourgos). The "Divine Craftsman" who shapes the universe in Platonic philosophy. is first among all things. It seems it has not just happened, but for all these creations, these things exist. When he hands over the things requested, it is also from those exceptional ones. These things, therefore, through the form and the living being, the God himself completes from matter or his own aims: the ordering of the world. It is not, therefore, his custom to destroy or to provide. Again, the cause is given to him; and the things of the gods, or those things belonging to them, they conceive to be open to investigation. For they do not hand over the whole cause of those things, nor this cause of world-making belonging to Oceanus original: "Ὠκεάνου" (Okeanou). In Greek mythology, the titan of the great world-encircling river, here used to represent the flowing, generative powers of nature.. What is it thus? Such as the paradigms. Such a form of the "generative" works of God already belongs to the gods through the intelligible original: "νοηταὶ" (noetai). Realities that can only be understood by the mind, not the senses. powers. They claim these are the only causes of themselves. For one should not think to number only these causes. If one were to try to make such a cause exist for these good things, they say it is a "wise passion," so that one would think these things are ordered not just in that way, but with their appropriate causes. Or indeed, their own works, both the creative works of the gods and the act of likening them to those gods. If it is the cause of its own; for generation happens as such things among three, both the ineffable ones, and those directing from below. But in no way...

...concerning which they say there is a difference, and concerning the world established for each thing from the gods as a form for itself, which is a substrate flowing like matter. Thus, the management of the whole and the order of the entire world is completed, or how it is assigned to the goddesses themselves, and from them again each thing is brought under the dedication of the whole member. For we say nothing is without purpose. But most of the providence of the gods, as farmers and planters original: "γεωργῶν καὶ φυτουργῶν" (georgon kai phytourgon). A metaphor for the gods' role in nurturing the growth and order of the cosmos., is managed within that very order of the whole. This order exists because they bring all things within us into cosmic perfection. After these things, it was said that the creative arts, such as painting or something similar, follow the primary substrates; and according to virtue, they coincide with one another in the world-ordering contemplation of the world. Nature, or the multitude, is demonstrated as the work of teachers, having as their aim the "shadow-images" of the higher powers, as Socrates says to Phaedrus A reference to Plato's Phaedrus, specifically the discussion on how earthly beauty or rhetoric can be a mere reflection of higher, divine truths.. And because of this, they might be able to be likened to the heavens, or the earth, or any of these. Among the pious who think thus, or that the whole is hung from its own causes from the ancient city, they had no other teaching but that such things are the most beautiful to lay down. For they say that each thing of the world-ordering and the exceptional essences original: "οὐσίας" (ousias) has been received in this way by those called gods. For what is it to nature, or rather, does the preceding hypostasis original: "ὑπόστασις" (hypostasis). The fundamental reality or "standing-under" of a thing. of all these things prefer philosophy? It is to know the character of the creative cause, whether ordered, or paradigmatic, and perfect, as to where it happens that the Demiurge is the creator of particulars. Not according to what the God himself says (lest they say anything else), but this is so if they attend either to the creative power or the divine virtue, as the soul hands down, or according to some highest and noble ineffable cause, as one learned from above in the paradigmatic cause (as if co-existing), or the entire procession from the God of the whole in giving changes to it into his own. He who finds the nobility in him, as in a master, and the earth as a mother being slain in the end, or some of the gods from antiquity who gave the names to him; it says that man ceases his life's path, but is a god. For the opinion, whatever it is, is in the discourse from the Phaedrus, so that there one seeks what has been said, or those contemplating every victory, not toward the outside of beings, but that the contemplation concerning it is appropriate. Taking up the word of the God, let us see these things. So if man is a microcosm original: "μικρὸς κόσμος" (mikros kosmos). The "little world"—the idea that a human being mirrors the structure of the entire universe., then all his parts participate. Whatever is in the world divinely and heavenly, is not otherwise likewise in God. And the remaining souls of the animals are whole, and their actions and the same teachings flow, having a relationship of cause to matter. For it is necessary that the heaven and the world come from there as a race and an essence; light...