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Secondary sourceBookc. 360 BCE

Timaeus

Plato · c. 360 BCE

Plato's dialogue on the mathematical structure of the cosmos and the soul, the main channel through which Pythagorean ideas reached later Western thought.

Plato's dialogue is a major channel through which Pythagorean ideas about numbers and the cosmos reached later thinkers.

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Scanned page from an early printed Latin edition of Plato's Timaeus, page numbered 252 at top right, with a running header reading TIMEUS and the heading Timeus Platonis. Dense two-column black-letter text with marginal notes and a woodcut-style initial, with a dialogue cast list naming Socrates, Timaeus, and Critias.
Plato, Timaeus, c. 360 BCE. Early printed Latin edition.

About this source

What it is

Timaeus is a dialogue written by Plato around 360 BCE, mostly consisting of a long speech by the character Timaeus. It presents a cosmology involving a divine craftsman, the World Soul, and the creation of the earth, heavens, and living things, alongside a shorter account by Critias about the myth of Atlantis.

Why it matters

Timaeus is the main work through which ideas associated with Pythagoras and his followers, about numbers, harmony, and the structure of the universe, entered later Western philosophy. Plato's engagement with these Pythagorean themes helped shape centuries of later thought about mathematics and the cosmos.

Look closer

  • Why might Plato have chosen the form of a dialogue to present these cosmological ideas?
  • What does it mean that Pythagorean ideas survive mainly through later writers like Plato, rather than directly from Pythagoras himself?
  • How does the mix of myth (like Atlantis) and philosophy in this dialogue affect how we should read it?

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