| This thesis is a critical commentary on Plato's Timaeus, which depicts a conversation between Socrates, Timaeus, Critias and Hermocrates, followed by a lengthy speech about the cosmos given by Timaeus. Timaeus stakes a claim to ‘a kind of philosophy’ in his discourse about ‘the all’, but his conception of philosophy differs markedly from the one usually associated with the Platonic Socrates. Timaeus' speech focuses on natural philosophy, while Socrates is famous for making a ‘turn’ away from these investigations towards political philosophy. A close reading of the Timaeus thus provides an opportunity to rethink the basis of the ‘Socratic Turn’ and assess the merits and disadvantages of Timaeus' approach to the study of nature. |
