Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Thursday - Week 8, MT25)

Abstract: The Timaeus is one of the three dialogues where Plato explicitly introduces a tripartite soul. In this dialogue we also appear to learn about the origin, the structure and the composition of the immortal rational soul, but not of the other two parts. In this paper, I challenge this assumption and argue that in an often-overlooked passage (Ti. 42e5-44b8), Timaeus in fact describes the origin of the soul’s mortal parts, from which we can reconstruct their structure and composition. My main claim is that the mortal parts of the soul originate from modifications of the circles of the immortal rational soul and are constituted by them. After discussing the implications of this claim and addressing some possible objections to it, I conclude by briefly showing how this reading of the Timaeus can help us making sense of other complex passages concerning tripartition, such as Glaucus’ one in the Republic (R. 610a9-612a6).

If you would like to go out to dinner with the speaker after the talk, then please contact the chair of the meeting (listed above) before Tuesday of this week. The meals of the chair and the speaker are covered by the faculty; others attend at their own expense.