Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus is one of <a href="/facts/Platonic_dialog/01aDBj6Y">Plato's dialogues</a>, mostly in the form of long monologues given by <a href="/facts/Critias/v874WpIq">Critias</a> and <a href="/facts/Timaeus_of_Locri/NlInqy08">Timaeus</a>, written c. 360 BC. The work puts forward reasoning on the possible nature of the physical world and human beings and is followed by the dialogue <a href="/facts/Critias_(dialogue)/5z2kVUGY">Critias</a>.
Participants in the <a href="/facts/Dialogue/a3etwdsd">dialogue</a> include <a href="/facts/Socrates/djIKjImv">Socrates</a>, Timaeus, <a href="/facts/Hermocrates/NhFW437p">Hermocrates</a>, and Critias. Some scholars believe that it is not the Critias of the <a href="/facts/Thirty_Tyrants/yPzjIPr0">Thirty Tyrants</a> who appears in this dialogue, but his grandfather, also named Critias. At the beginning of the dialogue, the absence of another, unknown dialogue participant, present on the day before, is bemoaned. It has been suggested from some traditions—<a href="/facts/Diogenes_Laertius/u99P8c1J">Diogenes Laertius</a> (VIII 85) from <a href="/facts/Hermippus_of_Smyrna/Ceugr21k">Hermippus of Smyrna</a> (3rd century BC) and <a href="/facts/Timon_of_Phlius/lXjvfmbN">Timon of Phlius</a> (c. 320 – c. 235 BC)—that Timaeus was influenced by a book about <a href="/facts/Pythagoras/8oe8UgCj">Pythagoras</a>, written by <a href="/facts/Philolaus/xVosbQjq">Philolaus</a>, although this assertion is generally considered false.

Timaeus (dialogue) open-in-new

Timaeus (dialogue)