PLATO'S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. ANDREW DAVID GREGORY. DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNICATION OF SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. SUBMISSION FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D. ProQuest Number: 10018566 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10018566 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates Plato's views on the nature of the natural world, and how we ought to investigate and explain it. Critical questions are whether Plato was antipathetic to the investigation of nature, Aether his views were overly teleological, v^ether his methodology was anti-eirpirical and discouraged careful observation and the effects, beneficial or otherwise, of his emphasis on mathematics. A central contention of this thesis is that there were significant changes to Plato's views on the stability of the cosmos and the relationship of mathematics to the physical world, and that these changes were significant events in the history of science. It is argued that there are also important co-ordinate ontological and epistemological changes from the middle period, and that Plato produced philosophically and historically interesting answers to many of the questions that must be faced by any realist conception of science. In this the status of the Timaeus is a c r itic a l. I t is argued th a t P la to 's sty le of w riting philosophy is based on his views on knowledge, and that he is not so much concerned to present us with dogma as to puzzle us, offer us frameworks for the solution of problems and draw us into considering these problems fo r ourselves. This approach i s applied to the Timaeus and it is argued that it presents a series of hypotheses about cosmology, mind and the epistemic status of the physical world for us to judge the worth of, many of these representing advances on the middle period views. One result here is greater epistemological optimism and greater stability in the natural world than some accounts of the Timaeus allow. It is argued that this approach enlivens the Timaeus, allows it a late dating, narrows the gap in style with the other late works and has important implications for our appreciation of Plato's philosophy of science. CONTENTS Acknowledgements. 5 References and Abbreviations. 6 Introduction. 7 Notes. 12 01; Plato's Philosophy of Writing Philosophy. 13 1) Philosophy and Literary Style. 13 2) Plato's Problem with Writing. 15 3) Some Aspects of Plato's Literary Style. 17 4) R eflexivity and P la to 's Views on Writing. 20 5) The Question of the 'Unwritten Doctrines'. 23 6) Interpretive Strategies. 24 7) Conclusions. 27 Notes. 28 02: Methodology in the Meno and Phaedo. 33 1) Socrates' Autobiography and the Deuteros Pious. 33 2) The Deuteros Pious and Recollection. 38 3) Recollection and Concept Formation. 41 4) Recollection and Foundation. 43 5) Teleology and Coherence in the Phaedo. 46 6) Recollection, Hypothesis and Meno's Paradox. 51 7) The Fate of Recollection. 54 8) Conclusions. 56 Notes. 58 03: Astronomy and Observation in the Republic. 65 1) Two Worlds and the Continuity of Platonic Investigation. 66 2) Objections to the Continuity of Platonic Investigation. 69 3) An Alternative Analysis of Republic 529c-530d. 72 4) Astronomical Data and Observation in Plato. 75 5) Conclusions. 79 Notes. 81 04: Reading the Timaeus. 87 1) Some Initial Problems. 87 2) The Timaeus and Parmenides' Poem. 90 3) Plato's View of Parmenides. 94 4) The Structure of the Timaeus. 98 5) Conclusions. 102 Notes. 103 05: Celestial Motion in the Timaeus. 109 1) Celestial Motion in the Republic and the Timaeus. 109 2) C e le stial Motion in the P o litic u s, Philebus and Laws. 114 3) Necessity and the 'Wandering Cause'. 117 4) Necessity and Causality. 120 5) Cosmological Change as a Dating Criterion. 122 6) Moral and Political Degeneration. 124 7) Owen*s Arguments Concerning Cosmology and P o litic s . 126 8) Conclusions. 129 Notes. 130 06: World Soul, Human Souls and E^istemology in the Timaeus. 140 1) Ihe World Soul's Opinions. 140 2) Innate Abilities and Common Notions. 143 3) The Iheaetetus and Sophist on False Judgement. 147 4) The Timaeus on Concrete False Judgement. 151 5) The Timaeus on A bstract False Judgement. 154 6) Conclusions. 156 Notes. 158 07: Flux and Language in the Timaeus. 165 1) Flux, Stability and the 'Stoicheic* Triangles. 165 2) The Stability of the Heavens. 168 3) Objection 1 - The Theory of Ageing. 169 4) Objection 2 - The Gold Example. 172 5) Language and S ta b ility . 175 6) Flux in the Theaetetus and Cratylus. 176 7) Other In terp retatio n s of the Gold Example. 178 8) *TVo Worlds' and Stability in the Timaeus and Philebus. 180 9) Conclusions. 184 Notes. 185 08: Metaphysics in the Sophist and Timaeus. 191 1) Sipace, Time and S elf-P redication. 191 2) Participation and Predication in the Sophist and Timaeus. 196 3) Relational Change in the Sophist. 200 4) Stylometry. 203 5) Conclusions. 206 Notes. 207 09: Mathematics and Knowledge in the Timaeus and Philebus. 214 1) The Generation of Numbers in the Parmenides. 214 2) Limit, Unlimited and the Stoicheic Triangles. 217 3) Physical E n titie s in the Timaeus and Philebus. 220 4) The Receptacle, Predication and Explanation. 225 5) Knowledge of the Physical in the Philebus. 229 6) Knowledge in the Theaetetus. 231 7) Knowledge of the Physical in the Timaeus. 234 8) Conclusions. 236 Notes. 240 10: P la to 's Philosophy of Science. 244 1) Plato's Teleology and Realist Conceptions of Science. 241 2) Observation and E3ç>eriment. 254 3) The Mathématisation of Nature and Investigation. 256 4) The Goals of the Investigation of Nature. 258 5) Conclusions. 260 6) Further Prospects. 263 Notes. 264 Bibliography. 269 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks in due proportion are owed to M.M McCabe, who read and consented on earlier versions of chapters two and three. Bob Sharpies vAo read and coirmented on e a rlie r versions of chapters three and fiv e , and my supervisor, Piyo R attansi, fo r h is work on th is p ro jec t. REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS. References to Plato are to the page numbers of the Stephanus edition (Paris 1578). Quotations of the Greek are taken from the Oxford Classical Text edition (Oxford, 5 vols 1900-1907), unless otherwise indicated. References to Aristotle are to the page numbers of the Bekker edition (Berlin 1831). I use the following abbreviations; LSJ = Lidd^U, Scott and Jones, a Greek - English Lexicon, 9th edition, Oxford 1940. OCT = Oxford Classical Text. KRS = Kirk, Raven and Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd ed, Cambridge U.P 1983. For Platonic and pseudo-Platonic works; Alicibiades I, II Ale.I, II. ^ology Apol. Charmides Chm. Cle itophon Clt. Cratylus Cra. Critias Cri. C rito Cro. Epinomis Epin. Epistles I-XIII Ep.I-XIII. Erastai Er. Euthydemus E td. Euthyphro Etp. Gorgias Grg. Hipparchus Hpc. Hippias Major H.Maj. Hippias Minor H.Min. Ion lo . Laches La. Laws Le. Lysis Ly. Meno Men. Menexenus Mnx. Minos Mi. Parmenides Rn. Phaedo Pdo. Phaedrus Pdr. Philebus Plb. Politicus Pit. Protagoras Prt. Republic Rep. Sophist So. Theaetetus Tht. Theages Thg. Timaeus Tim. The E.S is the Eleatic Stranger and the A.S is the Athenian Stranger. PLATO'S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE INTRODUCTION Plato's views on the nature of the natural world and how we ought to investigate and explain it have provoked some sharply divergent evaluations. He has received much criticism , the main accusations being that he was antipathetic to the investigation of nature, feeling that it could produce no worthvAiile results, that his views were overly teleological, that his methodology was anti-empirical, that he discouraged careful observation and that he effectively substituted mathematics for physics. Others have praised him, largely for vtot they see as his role in the mathématisation of nature and of science, while some have sought to strike a balance. My aim in this thesis is to produce a re-nappraisal of Plato's philosophy of science, and I shall attempt to clarify the basis, nature and justification of these various evaluations. While these matters have of course received due attention in the literature, I eirploy three strategies which will hopefully bring a fresh perspective to these debates. Firstly, a central contention of this thesis will be that there were significant changes in Plato's cosmology between the Republic and the Timaeus. In sh o rt, the cosmos becomes sta b le , and a t le a s t some aspects of it, including the motions of the heavenly bodies, become amenable to precise mathematical description. Behind this move are some inportant metaphysical realignments. The debate concerning the development of Plato's thought has often centred on the theory of forms. I argue that there are indeed changes here, but shall be at least equally concerned with the development of Plato's ideas concerning physical entities. Issues here are their provenance, their nature, their stability, their ability to behave regularly and the nature of the accounts that we can have of them.