Boethius and Plato's God

1039 Words3 Pages

Plato was born in Athens, Greece around 427 B.C. He was always interested in politics, until he witnessed his mentor and teacher, Socrates, death. After learning of the callousness of politics, Plato changed his mind and eventually opened up The Academy, which is considered if not the first, one of the first Universities. Students at the Academy studied many different fields of science, including biological and astronomical. The students also studied many other fields, such as math. Plato developed many views that were mathematical in nature. He expressed these views through his writings. According to Dr. Calkins of Andrew University, "Timaeus is probably the most renowned of Plato's thirty-five dialogues. [In it] Plato expresses that he believes that the heavenly bodies are arranged in perfect geometric form. He said that because the heavens are perfect, the various heavenly bodies move in exact circles." (Calkins 1). Of course that is a much summarized view of what Plato discusses in Timaeus, but still a solid view on Plato's beliefs about cosmology. Cosmology can be loosely defined as everything being explained and in its place or beautiful. The cosmos is beautiful because everything is perfect. Plato understood that when he defined the most perfect geometric design as the circle. In a circle one line is always equidistance from one point. In Plato's universe there are two realms, eternity and time. The factor that creates "time" out of the chaos of "eternity" is the Demiurge. Plato's Demiurge can be defined as an architect creator theological entity. The importance of the Demiurge in this paper is to compare and contrast him with Boethius's God in The Consolation of Philosophy.

Anicius Boethius was a Roman philosopher who ...

... middle of paper ...

...Victor Watt. London: Penguin

Group, 1999.

Calkins, Keith. Biographies of Mathematicians: Plato. Andrews University. (1999).

16 Feb 2005 < www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/bioplato.htm>.

Cohen, S. Marc. Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus. University of Washington. (2002).

15 Feb 2005 < www.faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/timaeus.htm>.

Gerson, Llyod P. "T.K. Johansen, Plato's Natural Philosophy. A Study of the Timaeus-

Critias." Bryn Mawr Classic Review 2005.01.22 (2005). 16 Feb 2005

< www.ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2005/2005-01-22.html>.

Ladd, George Eldon. "The Greek Versus the Hebrew View of Man." Present Truth 29.2.

15 Feb 2005 < www.presenttruthmag.com/archive/XXIX/29-2.htm>.

Watt, Victor. Introduction. The Consolation of Philosophy. By Anicius Boethius.

London: Penguin Group, 1999. xi-xxxv.

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