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This book focuses on two central topics that could help us answer how Plato conceives of the physical world and its relationship to Forms. The first one is the Platonic concept of time. What is it, how is it defined, what is it not, and how does it help us describe the changing realities surrounding us? The second one is Plato's understanding of the perceptible world. How is it related to Forms, and how exactly does it work? These are central, wide-ranging, and highly contested questions garnering attention in recent Platonic scholarship.
This book brings together an international team that aims to offer bold, innovative, and thought-provoking answers to these questions. The nine contributions in this book represent a diverse range of starting points, methodologies, and interpretative traditions whose collective aim is to challenge assumptions about Plato's philosophy and help the reader rethink and revisit the Platonic corpus with fresh eyes.
List of contents
1. The Instant ( phini ) in Plato's Parmenides 155e3-157b4, Luc Brisson.- 2. Extratemporal Conditions for Temporal Processes: The Pre-cosmic State in Plato's Timaeus and Parmenides, Angela Ulacco.- 3. The Ontology, Structure and Function of Time in Plato's Timaeus, Daniel Vázquez.- 4. The Perfect World: On the Relation Between the World and the Paradigm in Plato's Timaeus, Federico Maria Petrucci.- 5. Power of Becoming, Carolina Araújo.- 6. Eik s Logos and the World as a Work of Art, Bruno Conte.- 7. What is the Matter with Necessity and Space? - A Timaean Puzzle, Viktor Ilievski.- 8. Why particular things "play both sides" (Resp. 479b10)? Uniform and multiform entities in Plato's Two Worlds Theory, Filippo Forcignanò.
About the author
Dr. Viktor Ilievski is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Ancient Philosophy. He has been affiliated with the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Bucharest. He has been a visiting scholar at Charles University, University of Crete, and La Sapienza. He publishes mostly in Platonic cosmology and theology. Dr. Daniel Vázquez, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Before his current appointment, he held positions at the UAB (Spain), USP (Brazil), and Oxford (UK). He has been a visiting scholar at Trinity College Dublin, La Sapienza, Princeton, Oxford, Cornell, and Yale. Prof. Silvia De Bianchi (Università degli Studi di Milano Statale & Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) is Associate Professor at the University of Milan. She is PI of the ERC project Paradoxes and Metaphors of Time in Early Universe(s) investigating temporality in different cosmological models and the legacy of Plato's Timaeus.
