Topic:

Topic: Aristotle and Plato’s view of the world

Order Description
Compare Aristotle’s and Plato’s view of the word from “Plato’s Timeaus p.1162 or p.8 depending on the source and “Aristotle on the heavens” p.71.
Comparing On p. 1162 of the Timaeus Plato writes:
“The world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind
and is unchangeable and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something.” and On p. 71 of On the Heavens Aristotle writes:
“All the worlds must be composed of the same bodies being similar in nature. But at the same time each of these bodies must have the same potentialities … for if the bodies of another world resemble our own in name only and not in virtue of having the same form, then it would only be in name that the whole which they compose could be pronounced a world.”

These three authors present different conceptions of the composition of the world. In a 750 word essay, please analyze two of the texts and compare them along the following lines (you do not have to refer to all points):
• What are the different ideas of order reflected in the texts?
• How does each of the texts address the tension between variety and uniformity?
• What importance does the idea of necessity have in these accounts, if any?
• How do the differences in their language – for example, their use of the terms “world”
and “worlds” – reflect the similarities and differences in their philosophies of nature?
• What concept of motion is employed by each of the authors and what role is it assigned
in their conceptions of nature?

Order Description
Compare Aristotle’s and Plato’s view of the word from “Plato’s Timeaus p.1162 or p.8 depending on the source and “Aristotle on the heavens” p.71.
Comparing On p. 1162 of the Timaeus Plato writes:
“The world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind
and is unchangeable and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something.” and On p. 71 of On the Heavens Aristotle writes:
“All the worlds must be composed of the same bodies being similar in nature. But at the same time each of these bodies must have the same potentialities … for if the bodies of another world resemble our own in name only and not in virtue of having the same form, then it would only be in name that the whole which they compose could be pronounced a world.”

These three authors present different conceptions of the composition of the world. In a 750 word essay, please analyze two of the texts and compare them along the following lines (you do not have to refer to all points):
• What are the different ideas of order reflected in the texts?
• How does each of the texts address the tension between variety and uniformity?
• What importance does the idea of necessity have in these accounts, if any?
• How do the differences in their language – for example, their use of the terms “world”
and “worlds” – reflect the similarities and differences in their philosophies of nature?
• What concept of motion is employed by each of the authors and what role is it assigned
in their conceptions of nature?