Talk:Timaeus (dialogue)

This article has not yet been rated on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Greece Start‑class Mid‑importance

	Greece portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Greece, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Greece on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GreeceWikipedia:WikiProject GreeceTemplate:WikiProject GreeceGreek articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Classical Greece and Rome Start‑class Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome, a group of contributors interested in Wikipedia's articles on classics. If you would like to join the WikiProject or learn how to contribute, please see our project page. If you need assistance from a classicist, please see our talk page.Classical Greece and RomeWikipedia:WikiProject Classical Greece and RomeTemplate:WikiProject Classical Greece and RomeClassical Greece and Rome articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Books Start‑class

	Books portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Books. To participate in the project, please visit its page, where you can join the project and discuss matters related to book articles. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the relevant guideline for the type of work.BooksWikipedia:WikiProject BooksTemplate:WikiProject BooksBook articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Physics: Publications / History Start‑class Mid‑importance

	Physics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Physics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhysicsWikipedia:WikiProject PhysicsTemplate:WikiProject Physicsphysics articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Publications Taskforce.
	This article is supported by History Taskforce.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Philosophy: Literature / Ancient Start‑class High‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles

Start

This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

High

This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Associated task forces:
/
	Philosophical literature
	Ancient philosophy

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

History of Science Start‑class Mid‑importance

	History of science portal This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.History of ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject History of ScienceTemplate:WikiProject History of Sciencehistory of science articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Paranormal Start‑class Mid‑importance

	This article falls under the scope of WikiProject Paranormal, which aims to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to the paranormal and related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the attached article, help with current tasks, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and discussions.ParanormalWikipedia:WikiProject ParanormalTemplate:WikiProject Paranormalparanormal articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

The World Soul

I've reworked (and added quotations directly from the Timaeus) the "World Soul" section of this page, as whoever wrote the previous entry had clearly not read Plato's text very carefuly (if at all). 128.205.73.127 (talk) 18:12, 21 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ex nihilo

The section below in quotation marks is not relevent to the article. The Christian Doctrine of Creatio Ex Nihilo was not developed until the councils expounded it. The section has the appearance of a Christian polemic and I've therefore removed it.

"For Plato, the demiurge lacked the supernatural ability to create ex nihilo or out of nothing. Not being omnipotent the demiurge was able to only organize to a limited extent the "ananke" (αναγκη) or necessity."

Purpose of the universe

I cancelled the remark about some Christian sects differring with creation ex nihilo because they did not exist at Plato's time and therefore are not relevant to the article. While the reference to the Bible position is important also because the "Timaeus" has been used to interpret the Genesis by medioeval Christian philosophers who indeed refused the original idea of eternal matter and introduced the creation ex nihilo. Benio76 22:01, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

To the person who wrote about the interpretation of the creation in Genesis as an "organisation" and not a "creation ex nihilo". I reverted your edit because:

1/ it is not sourced. You propose an interpretation of the Genesis which is different from the current one and is based on the translation of a world from ancient Hebrew: so, you have to quote first of all a dictionary for the translation and then a critical source supporting and explaining the interpretation. Otherwise, your contribution is original research and does not follow WP guidelines (see WP:NOR);

2/ as I already wrote, the reference to this interpretation will be pertinent if connected to Plato's times: was this interpretation already existing when the Timaeus was written? Are there relations between Hebrews and Christians supporting this interpretation and the Timaeus? I explained why my reference to the standard interpretation is relevant to the history of the Timaeus, please do the same. Otherwise, I think that Genesis or other articles connected to creation are more appropriate articles for your contributions.

In general, please make propositions in the talk page and discuss them with the other editors before editing. If you source your contribution and explain the pertinence, I have no problem with accepting it. Thanks. Benio76 16:22, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So why does the article say "the Bible account"? Why not briefly mention these medieval theologians? Dan 05:42, 7 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! I added that the article is speaking of the traditional interpetation. The medieval theologians are already mentioned at the end of the article. Benio76 14:34, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 13:55, 9 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Demiurge Never Used in the Writings

I just checked all of the external links and nowhere is the word "Demiurge", ever used by Plato.MPA 00:48, 17 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by MPA (talk • contribs)

What Plato "thinks"

I am sure that this is a common problem for articles written about the writings of Plato, but this article says things like "Plato assumes" and "Plato posits" as if it is clear that the author actually thinks what the characters think. Plato never made overt claims in his own name, at least not in the Socratic dialogues. Every such instance should be replaced with "Timaeus describes" (as is accurately used in most of the article. Rugbyhelp (talk) 17:38, 27 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Erroneous .GIF (a.k.a. Pedantic Observation)

It appears the spinning object labeled "Tetrahedron.gif" in The Elements section is actually a 3D pyramid, and not a tetrahedron.

A tetrahedron is a pyramid. RJC ^Talk_Contribs 00:19, 30 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Golden Section

The last comment about the Golden mean is wrong. Also Plato speaks of 'God' (in the singular) not 'the demiurge', There is also no mention in the article of the lengthy discussion of physiology, disease and sensation, which is by far the longest discussion in the Dialogue.