Demiurge - Platonism and Neoplatonism

Platonism and Neoplatonism

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Epistemology · Idealism / Realism · Demiurge
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Ring of Gyges · The cave
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The Academy in Athens
Socratic problem
Commentaries on Plato
Middle Platonism · Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism and Christianity

Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus, c. 360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world. Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent, and hence desirous of a world as good as possible. The world remains imperfect, however, because the Demiurge created the world out of a chaotic, indeterminate non-being. Plato's work Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiod's cosmology in his Theogony, syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer.

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