Ancient Cosmology IV

Abstract

This chapter argues that after the preceding account of the early Greek philosophers, it is now possible to appreciate the truly incredible but hardly original cosmological synthesis of centrifugal motion and spherology achieved by Plato (with the help of Socrates, who was the contemporary of many early Greek philosophers) and Aristotle. This chapter shows the cosmology of the sphere at work in Plato and Aristotle. In Plato’s work, the single clearest exposition of the kinetics of eternity occurs in his dialogue The Timaeus. Similar accounts are given throughout Plato’s work, but since the focus of The Timaeus is on cosmology, it provides the most robust account.