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Essays

Vol. 158 No. 3 (2025): Rendiconti. Class of Moral Sciences

The ontological status of physical bodies in Plato’s Timaeus

  • Franco Ferrari
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rndoa2025oa22293
Submitted
marzo 24, 2026
Published
2026-05-28

Abstract

This contribution is dedicated to Plato’s Timaeus, where the genesis and nature of the physical universe is investigated. In this work, the universe is conceived as a copy of a model. The essay aims to examine the possibility of understanding the physical universe as the projection of an intelligible archetype. The projection is made possible by the hypothesis of the universal receptacle, that is, a sort of three-dimensional projection screen: unextended forms are projected into the chora (space) transforming themselves into three-dimensional physical bodies.

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