Timaeus and Critias

Timaeus and Critias - Paperback

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Timaeus and Critias
  • Timaeus and Critias
Timaeus and Critias - Paperback

Timaeus and Critias - Paperback

by Plato , Robin Waterfield , Andrew Gregory
$12.95
$12.95

Book Overview

by Plato (Author), Robin Waterfield (Author), Andrew Gregory (Author)

'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.'

Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials.
The unfinished companion piece, Critias, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Author Biography

Robin Waterfield has translated numerous classics texts for OWC, including Plato's Republic, Synposium, Gorgias, and Phaedrus, The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists, Aristotle's Physics, Herodotus' Histories, Plutarch and Euripides. In addition to Plato's Philosophy of Science, Andrew Gregory is the author of Harvey's Heart (Icon, 2000) and Eureka! the Birth of Science (Icon, 2001). His book Ancient Greek Cosmogony is published by Duckworth in December 2007.

Number of Pages: 240
Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.5 x 5 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: February 01, 2009
ISBN9780192807359
Author Plato , Robin Waterfield , Andrew Gregory
PublisherOxford University Press
GenreEducation and Philosophy
FormatPaperback
PublishedFebruary 2009
LanguageENG- English
Pages240
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceTeens & young adults and Adults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Nonfiction Philosophy Science

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More by Plato

The Portable Plato

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The Portable Plato - Paperback

By Plato
About Plato
Plato (c. 427-347 b.c.) founded the Academy in Athens, the prototype of all Western universities, and wrote more than twenty philosophical dialogues.
About Robin Waterfield
Robin Waterfield has translated numerous classical texts for OWC, including Plato's Republic, Herodotus' Histories and Plutarch's Greek Lives and Roman Lives Edith Hall is co-director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford. She has published widely on ancient Greek drama and society, reviews and appears on radio and television. She has written introductions to the other four volumes of Euripides' plays in OWC. James Morwood has translated three volumes of Euripides' plays for OWC and is the author of The Plays of Euripides and A Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases.

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