Material Elements and Mathematical Proportion as a Principle of Composition in Plato’s Timaeus

Abstract: In Plato’s Timaeus, a specific kind of mathematical proportion is responsible for unifying the parts of the material cosmos into a whole. The same proportion is present in the ‘molecular’ structure of the four elements – fire, air, water, and earth – suggesting that the proportion functions as a principle of composition that yields genuinely unified wholes whenever the parts of such wholes exemplify it. But how can a mathematical proportion unify many things into one? Why should it be the specific kind of proportion we find in the text? And why do the elemental molecules exemplify the proportion in the way they do? This talk will attempt to present a coherent answer to these questions.