-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
Timaeus and Critias
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Timaeus and Critias (Oxford World's Classics) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Product Description
'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 Author
Plato (c. 427–347 b.c.) founded the Academy in Athens, the prototype of all Western universities, and wrote more than twenty philosophical dialogues.
Thomas Kjeller Johansen studied philosophy and classics at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is now University Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy at Oxford University and Tutorial Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. His publications include Plato’s Natural Philosophy. A Study of the Timaeus-Critias (Cambridge 2004).
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this like most other people to read about the Atlantis myth and for anyone interested in either the myth or Plato's natural philosophy this is an important work.
The Criteas is a short fragment of a dialogue where the Atlantis myth originates. He puts the story in a historical context by talking of the discoveries made by Solon on his travels in Egypt, but it is not clear if it is allegorical or that this is a real history. Most of the story is a description of the Island and then an account of their conflict with other peoples and final destruction and fall. The story ends abruptly and we do not see the final moral of the story because the rest of the dialogue is lost.
The Timaeus is Plato's work on natural sciences. He was not an experimentalist and so his theories are based on theory and observation. There is the discussion of the elemental particles, which would come to be known as the Platonic solids as well as some view on medicine and health. For Plato the metaphysical laws of philosophy are well established, whereas natural philosophy is difficult. This is perhaps the opposite to the view we would have today.
The Criteas is a short fragment of a dialogue where the Atlantis myth originates. He puts the story in a historical context by talking of the discoveries made by Solon on his travels in Egypt, but it is not clear if it is allegorical or that this is a real history. Most of the story is a description of the Island and then an account of their conflict with other peoples and final destruction and fall. The story ends abruptly and we do not see the final moral of the story because the rest of the dialogue is lost.
The Timaeus is Plato's work on natural sciences. He was not an experimentalist and so his theories are based on theory and observation. There is the discussion of the elemental particles, which would come to be known as the Platonic solids as well as some view on medicine and health. For Plato the metaphysical laws of philosophy are well established, whereas natural philosophy is difficult. This is perhaps the opposite to the view we would have today.
Format:Paperback
Not like new. It was new and came with a note, making this online shopping more humane. Thanks a lot!
Format:Paperback
This is my first exposure to Plato and I was pleasantly surprised. If like me, you were forced to study Shakespeare at school (rather than discover it for yourself in later life) it probably turned you off the idea of reading something by an ancient Greek philosopher. However, this modern translation is surprisingly down to Earth. Basically, the Timaeus and Critias are a couple a conversations between a few friends pondering on the origins of life the universe and the ancient Greek nation. Timaeus was finished (but still fairly short) and mentions Atlantis briefly. Critias was never finished (as far as we know) and describes Atlantis is considerable detail. Both were fun to read and I couldn't help looking at my Atlas trying to pinpoint where Atlantis may have been. An easy and fun, easy and exciting read for anyone wishing to "get into" Plato. Highly recommended.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not very exciting or engaging.
Timaeus is quite laborious. Critias is unfinished. Critias would have been the better text, if it were finished. Read more
Published 9 months ago by @garethalteran
dream
this book cane to me in a dream and is about to change my life!!!
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by Evgeniya Emets
Everything you always wanted to know about Atlantis...
If you are planning to read any other books on Atlantis, and think you might get involved in discussions on the subject, this is the book to read first. Read more
Published on 27 April 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
