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The other reviewers were right: kick down the extra cash and get this edition. The background, explanation, and discussion alone are worth the price of admission. Timaeus is, even for Plato, loaded with good stuff. Stuff you don't want to miss. So, don't miss it! Get this translation!
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This edition has one of the best literal translation, which is critical in understanding numerous technical descriptions of the cosmos. The interpretive essay is extremely helpful. There are many ways of interpreting Timaeus: First, as a description of the cosmos itself (unfortunately Plato was not part of the natural science revolutions in the past 2000 years, so this way of interpreting Timaeus is not quite the right way). Second, as a historial document to be compared to other natural sciences of his time. Or, third, as how it fits into Plato's overall works. Kalkavage takes the last approach. I must say that his attempt to link this to the Republic gives me valuable insight in understanding Republic itself. For example he compares Timaeus as the "comos in speech" just as Kallipolis is the "city in speech". Also, there is a compelling argument on linking: soul-city-cosmos. I find it helpful also to read Cornford's Plato's Cosmology. This book has a detail description of what Plato's cosmos looks like. An indespensible companion to Kalkavage's book.
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I have a big green book with all of Plato's dialogues and it is gibberish compared to this translation. The introduction is great and the book is poetry.
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It's kind of a mess. Plato's conception of how the earth was created is just an atavistic whirlwind of different origins and primary forces, none of which are explained or tied together into a coherent framework. He starts out with a foundational idea and then when he can't develop it any further, he just throws out another one and insists that it's somehow related to the previous one. That being said, this is a hugely important dialogue because in his examination of first origins Plato briefly calls into question the problem of understanding what being and becoming are, but he just as promptly drops them, refusing to go into further detail. It's the starting point for Martin Heidegger's project in Being and Time. The Timeaus matters not because of what Plato discusses in it, but because of what he actively leaves out of it.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
The Timaeus is doubtless one of the most difficult of Plato's dialogues for modern student to unravel, in part because of the vital role played by mathematics in Timaeus' narrative. Kalkavage's appendices provide clear introductions to these aspects of the argument, which supersede Cornford on some points. The translation is very literal, and if that's your thing, quite impeccable. Kalkavage in his Introduction expresses intellectual debts to Jacob Klein, Richard Kennington, and Stanley Rosen; this is a most interesting pedigree, especially as one assumes that the absence of the obvious "fourth" must be intentional. I should remark, in reference to the review below, that the Timaeus presupposes some familiarity with Plato's philosophy; those just embarking on this study would be best advised to begin with the Alcibiades or the Meno.
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In Plato's Timaeus the reader will encounter the divine philosopher's cosmogony, dealing with the creation of the universe and the formation of the human species. Timaeus of Locri, the Pythagorean, takes the lead role in the dialogue. It may be declared that the Timaeus is a philosophical discourse that ascends to a level of intellectual sublimity and aesthetic beauty that has seldom been attained in the pages of western philosophy; and its impact was such that it inspired a whole line of platonic-minded men throughout antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Even today, the Timaeus has not lost its philosophical appeal. Now the basic elements of Timaeus' dissertation deal with the creation of the universe, the immortal gods, mortal man, animate, and inanimate entities: and out of this immerges Plato's famed Theory of Forms, his conception of the Demiurge and World Soul, along with implications pointing to the doctrines of Anamnesis and the Transmigration of Souls. Overall the Timaeus, like the Republic, is required reading for students of Plato and those interested in the western philosophical tradtion.
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This item: Plato: Timaeus (Focus Philosophical Library)
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