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The God Who Is Image. Plato's Timaeus on the Worlds, Humankind and Mimetic Variety

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2023

Abstract

In the history of philosophy, Plato is unique in his attention to the uncertain ontology of the image and the power that derives from it. In order to address this prominence, my chapter proposes to re-read the construction, in the Timaeus, of our sensible universe and of the human being.

Carried out by the demiurge and the auxiliary gods, this construction consists of the various acts of mimêsis that establish the cohesion of the Whole. Similarly, it is the multiple and varied mimêsis that integrates humanity into the cosmos.

It is this complexity that I address in my chapter, with an emphasis on the dual status of the world, which as a whole is designated as both image and god (92c, cf. 34b, 55d, 68e).