Study Questions & Terms on Plato's Timaeus

Questions:

1. What was reality to Plato? Explain precisely what the three factors or parts
of the universe were and how they differed.

2. What purposes could Plato's views of what is real and not so real serve for him?

3. What was Plato's view of the physical world? Of what and how was it made? How did
Plato recommend that people study it and what kind of knowledge could they have of it?

4. Explain and account for Plato's explanation of the 'creation'. Was it actually a
'creation' or would another word be more descriptive? Why would he take such a view?

5. Explain Plato's epistemology. How do people know what is certain and true, according
to the Timaeus? How can people be certain that they have the correct understanding of
anything?

6. What purpose might his view of how humankind knows have served for Plato?

7. Why would Platonism later be more useful to Jews, Christians, and Moslems than the
later followers of the Greek materialists and sophists?
8. How useful would Platonism be to natural science today? Why? Provide at least three
explanations pro and three con.

Terms:

Forms, Copies, Receptacle, Intelligibles, Sensibles, Being, Becoming, Craftsman,
Nurse of Becoming, the 'Creation', Soul, World Soul, Compounds, Triangles, Gods we
see, Gods on earth, Other gods.