Federico Maria Petrucci

This book is the first monograph devoted to the philosophy of Taurus of Beirut, and will provide a long-awaited analysis of his texts and their first English translation. Through close examination of the extant witnesses, Petrucci gives a new account of Middle Platonism based on a fresh approach to the theological and cosmological view of Taurus. In this way, the book contributes substantially to the debate on Post-Hellenistic Platonism from the point of view of both exegetical methods and philosophical doctrines, and will prove a starting point for a new understanding of many aspects of ancient thought.

Theon was a teacher of Platonism and an exegete of Plato's text in the flourishing town of Smyrna during the first and second century of our age (fl. 125 a.D.). The Expositio is the only work of Theon that has been transmitted to us. It is an important witness in order to grasp not only the approach to mathematics (arithmetic, music and astronomy) typical of a middle-Platonist, but also (and above all) the exegetic aims of this project.
Here the Expositio is translated in Italian for the first time, with a deep revisal of the Teubner text. The commentary shows that this work is a technical exegesis of the Timaeus, an attempt to argue that Plato has grasped in the most authentic way the true structure of the cosmos. On this ground, it is possible to see at work methods, intentions and strategies of a middle-Platonist engaged in the reargumentation of the Timaeus.   

Nella fiorente Smirne dei primi due secoli della nostra era, Teone (fl. 125 d.C.) fu maestro di Platonismo ed esegeta del testo di Platone. L'unica sua opera a noi tràdita, l'Expositio, è una testimonianza ampia e importante per cogliere non solo l'approccio di un filosofo medioplatonico alle matematiche (aritmetica, musica e astronomia), ma anche (e soprattutto) le finalità, essenzialmente esegetiche, di questa operazione.
Alla luce del commentario continuo l'Expositio, qui tradotta per la prima volta in lingua italiana sulla base di una radicale revisione del testo teubneriano, si presenta come un'esegesi tecnica del Timeo, un tentativo di chiarire e sostenere che Platone ha colto nel modo più autentico e profondo la vera struttura del cosmo: emergono così i metodi, le intenzioni e le strategie di un filosofo medioplatonico impegnato nella riargomentazione del Timeo.

The aim of this paper is to provide a new reading of Plato's precosmos (Ti. 52d2-53c3). More specifically, I shall argue that the precosmos is populated by bodies deriving from random complexes of properties, and that this is the effect of the Receptacle's full precosmic participation in the Paradigm. This will turn out to be consistent with a robust notion of 'precosmic generation' and will reveal why Plato may have sought to refer to this otherwise puzzling scenario: representing the precosmos in this way allows Plato to effectively justify why the Demiurge is responsible only for the goodness and perfection of the universe, and why it is properly the best possible cause.

The chapter’s title is “The Perfect World. On the Relation Between the World and the Paradigm in Plato’s Timaeus”, and its argument mainly focuses on two specific mimetic relations. The first one is that of the Paradigm, i.e., the intelligible Living Being – interpreted by the author as identical with the world of Forms in its entirety – and the created world, while the second is that of eternity and its moving image, i.e., time. The study of both these kinds of imaging leads to the same conclusion: with the generation of the one, complete, sempiternal world, the Demiurge does not replicate the intelligible model’s stable and unchanging nature, but rather its dynamic and all-inclusive structure. This conclusion is entailed by three premises. First, the Demiurge’s omnibenevolence warrants that he will construct the best possible world by contemplating the most complete paradigm. Second, as per the doctrine of five greater kinds developed in the Sophist, the ontology of the organic whole that is the Living Being is dynamic and effervescent. Third, the nature of eternity, on the likeness of which time has been framed, is also one of intelligent motion and life, and not only of static unity. It is on account of these properties of the Paradigm and its mode of existence, i.e., of eternity, that the sensible image is rightly called a living being and a majestic god whose lifespan is measured by everlasting time.

In questo contributo mi riprometto di sciogliere un paradosso che pare prodursi all’interno del Timeo stesso nel momento in cui siano avvicinate una così forte teoria dell’immagine visiva e un’ontologia che priva i particolari sensibili di identità diacronica. Ciò condurrà a una ridefinizione dell’oggetto stesso della vista nel Timeo – che è in realtà primariamente da identificare non con oggetti o corpi, ma con traiettorie, dunque con le strutture matematiche che governano il movimento dei corpi – e a cogliere qual è il vantaggio filosofico di una simile peculiare caratterizzazione della vista.

The aim of this paper is to reveal the implicit criticism against some Middle Platonist philosophical stances in the polemical part of IV 7 (2) (i.e., 2-85), which is usually regarded as being directed only against Stoic and Peripateric doctrines and as relying on earlier Platonist material. I want to suggest that Plotinus' polemic is designed to dismantle not only Stoic and Peripatetic views of the soul, but also what he regards as the Middle Platonists’ erroneous ways of understanding the soul's nature and immortality.

Il Timeo continua a presentare un'enorme quantità di problemi di natura generale o puntuale, teorica o testuale, anche seo forse proprio perchéè stato oggetto di attenzione crescente negli ultimi decenni . In questo breve contributo voglio soffermarmi su un passo molto circoscritto relativo alla natura del Ricettacolo (48a7), passo che a mio avviso è stato ampiamente frainteso, con conseguenze pesanti dal punto di vista filosofico. Il mio fine è quello di argomentare a favore di un modo specifico di intendere la formulazione di Platone, e di una conseguente traduzione, che possa rendere conto di alcuni aspetti rilevanti della teoria platonica del Ricettacolo.

In this chapter I set out to address the problem of post-Hellenistic isagogical views of Aristotle’s writings from an ‘indirect’ point of view, namely by focusing on extant witnesses of pre-Alexandrian commentaries. More specifically, by relying on the scarce extant sources, and above all on Aspasius, I shall identify some structural features characterising Peripatetic commentaries in order to detect what conception of Aristotle’s texts they imply. In this way, we will be in a position to address the following questions, which would usually find answers in isagogical writings: how should one read Aristotle’s texts? What, if any, is their specific nature? Why are Aristotle’s writings shaped the way they are? Are they clear or obscure, and why so? To be clear, the point is not that in Peripatetics before Alexander one can already discover later isagogical schemata: this had been suggested by Moraux with reference to Andronicus, but I take Mansfeld to be right in saying that exploring isagogical issues does not imply adopting isagogical schemata.  My point is that we should focus neither on the presence of isagogical schemata (since, quite simply, they are not attested), nor on partial ways of addressing them (since this would imply taking later structures as absolute parameters). Rather, we should focus on the possibility of outlining an overall conception of Aristotle’s texts even without isagogical writings, whose goal is – theoretically – to display such a conception and to determine the best approach to the texts within its framework. The limited number of extant sources and their narrow focus might of course discourage us from applying my conclusions to Aristotle's corpus as a whole. However, by making these sources interact and by discovering their methodological consistency, we can at least consider the conclusions drawn from them to represent specific instances (the only known ones) of a wider scenario that is lost to us.

The aim of this paper is to explore Atticus' argument in favour of a temporalist theory of the generation of the world as a passage from precosmic disorder to cosmic order due to the providential and intentional intervention of god. More specifically, I shall suggest that Atticus' main concern when supporting temporalism is to provide Platonism with an effective theory of providence; that temporalism is introduced in conditional arguments, which do not show by themselves the necessity of temporalism; and that the argumentative key introduced by Atticus in order to ensure that these conditional arguments are actually decisive is a radicalisation related to the ontological status of bodies and the evil nature of the precosmic soul.

Burnet's text at Timaeus 55c7-d6 is at least questionable, and opting for a different reading at 55d5 (θεός instead of θεόν) would shed light on an intriguing argumentative aspect of Plato's cosmological account: God confirms the metaphysical reasons why there is just one perfect world.

In the light of an overall analysis of the occurrences of βλέπω in the dialogues and the consequent mapping of the semantic components of the verb, I show that Plato bases philosophically in a much more solid way the "blepein" of the Demiurge and offers, through the hypothesis of the use of a sensible paradigm for the cosmos, a strong implicit argument in favor of the actors at play in his own cosmology.

In this paper I show that Antiochus of Ascalon provided some crucial material for Platonism in the qualified sense that he coined a model of Plato’s authority, in a dogmatic perspective, that preceded and had priority over the various doctrines which were to be embedded into it.  I will then briefly turn to Eudorus in order to confirm my point. If my view is correct, it is bound to have significant consequences with respect to our conception of the history of Platonism. On the one hand, one should backdate the theoretical construction of a conception of Plato as a dogmatic authority after the sceptical period of the Academy to the 1st century BC. On the other, however, we are in a better position to detect in what sense Middle Platonism only emerged in the 1st century AD, namely in terms of the application of shared exegetical methods and a commitment to a set of crucial (yet very general) philosophical tenets.

It is a commonplace that the notion of cosmic harmony is key in the Platonist tradition, and indeed Middle Platonists frequently appeal to the world’s harmony in order to describe the perfect condition of the ensouled world and to state that God is the cause of this harmony . This can be regarded as a testimony to the importance of exegesis in Middle Platonist philosophy, for several Platonic passages – from the myth of Er to the divisio animae in the Timaeus – would prove good bases for claiming that the world as a whole entails harmony. Relegating the Middle Platonist doctrine of cosmic harmony to the field of mere exegesis, however, risks leading us towards an oversimplification: for this idea, if unqualified, would ultimately amount to a broad metaphor referring to the world’s order, a metaphor of no particular philosophical import in itself and simply based on the fact that sometimes Plato describes the world as harmonic. On the other hand, this does not imply that speaking of cosmic harmony without referring to Plato’s dialogues necessarily entails any intriguing philosophical doctrine: for instance, the notion of a ‘cosmic harmony’ also occurs in technical writings  or Pythagorean-flavoured Hellenistic poems, such as those by Alexander of Hephesos . In this paper I aim to show not only that Middle Platonist views of cosmic harmony went beyond mere exegesis and were part of a complex philosophical reasoning, but also that the notion of cosmic harmony played different roles in Middle Platonism and was invoked in support of rival theological and cosmological models. More specifically, I will suggest that it is possible to detect two Middle Platonist models of cosmic harmony and divine harmonisation, a dynamic and artisanal one on the one hand, and a static and non-artisanal one on the other, and that each plays a key role within the theological model in which it is framed: by understanding the Middle Platonist doctrines of cosmic harmony one is in a position also to enter an intriguing debate on the sense in which God is to be regarded, according to the Middle Platonists, as the harmoniser of the world.

In questo contributo propongo di leggere la teologia di Apuleio come non artigianale: il Dio come causa divina, pur venendo ancora chiamato δημιουργός (o artifex), è in realtà una causa benefica che assicura per sua stessa natura che tutti i meccanismi cosmologici, essendo in sé stessi in grado di preservarsi e di procedere autonomamente, siano i migliori e i più efficaci possibili, e di conseguenza garantisce in questo senso specifico l’ordine del cosmo.

This paper aims to discuss the conceptions of the stereometric body in the Platonist tradition of the Imperial age and Late Antiquity. I shall first suggest that the Middle Platonists formulated an arithmo-stereometric theory, which they combined with the traditional Euclidean stereometry. This move was meant to solve a specific philosophical problem, namely the need to describe in arithmo-stereometric terms the structure of the cosmic soul in such a way as to guarantee, on the one hand, its dissimilarity with respect to the corporeality, whose "solid" structure can be described in Euclidean terms, and on the other hand, the effectiveness of the action of the soul within the physical and three-dimensional cosmos. Precisely because of the disappearance of these requirements and for an overall change of philosophical approach, starting from Plotinus, Neoplatonism will instead be able to renounce the arithmostereometry and return to a consistently Euclidean definition of the notion of stereometric body.

Scholars nowadays are far from having reached an agreement about the issue of the structure of Middle Platonist commentaries on Plato’s dialogues: some take this to be the running line-by-line commentary, while others believe that Middle Platonist commentaries were mainly specialist ones. In this paper I shall propose a fresh and comprehensive analysis of extant sources in order to show that both views, while shedding light on important features of this literary genre in Middle Platonism, should be supplemented in order to draw a more complex picture. Extant witnesses suggest that the Middle Platonist commentaries were characterized by a set of features which shaped a specific conception of the literary genre: they were lemmatic and followed the development of a dialogue in its progression, yet at the same time they applied a thematic focus and hence admitted a substantial degree of selectivity.

The aim of this paper is to show that a new approach to Middle Platonist technical exegesis is both necessary and profitable, for it can shed light on the deep philosophical and methodological background of Middle Platonist exegesis as a whole. Through the exegesis of Plato’s divisio animae, the Middle Platonists wanted to establish specific ways of both demonstrating and conceiving Plato’s authority also in the field of harmonics. In particular, I shall take into account Platonists such as Plutarch, Theon, Nicomachus, and Severus, in order to show that: a) the Middle Platonist exegesis of Plato’s divisio animae is chiefly based on a literalist approach to Plato’s text, which is exploited in such a way as to make good technical sense of Plato’s divisio animae; b) in this way, Middle Platonists sought to establish Plato’s authority in the field of harmonics; c) this conception of authority is however controversial, for some Platonists (e.g., Theon) regarded him as the founder of very specific technical notions, while others (such as Plutarch, Nicomachus, and Severus) considered him the first to have established the general framework of Greek harmonics.

The aim of this paper is to deeply rethink the traditional notion of “ideological emendation”. By taking Taurus F26 as a test-case, I shall emphasise that Taurus’ intervention on Timaeus 27c5 is the result of a conjecture, and that such an emendation matches the requirements for a philological conjecture on Plato’s text. Indeed, Taurus’ fragment, which is usually taken as a typical example of “ideological emendation”, just reflects an effort to recover what Plato actually wrote, and is nothing but a textual emendation. Accordingly, the ideological core of such an emendation is what must lie at the basis of any conjecture, that is an attempt to re-establish (what is assumed to be) Plato’s text as mirroring his consistent doctrine.

Contemporary interpretations of Plato's Menexenus are particularly affected by the increasing fossilisation of traditional readings, which must be supplemented in order to discover important statements made in the dialogue. In particular, in the final part of the funeral oration Plato describes a virtue that may be acknowledged by the whole community. This virtue is different from authentic virtue, which is based on knowledge. It is a virtue of lower degree, political in nature, and leading to the accomplishment of virtuous actions. In this paper I outline the features of this virtue, as they emerge from the Menexenus, and finally indicate its import for the dialogue and for Plato’s ethics as a whole.

The contemporary debate on Plato’s cosmogony must take into account the issue of literalism: in order to sustain a sempiternalistic interpretation, scholars are usually required to transcend the literal meaning of certain aspects of Plato’s account. Ancient exegeses are often invoked as evidence in support of this approach. Among the most important pieces of evidence, Taurus’ fragment 23 has usually been regarded as avoiding the problem of literalism by positing four non-literal meanings for the word γενητόν. I wish to demonstrate that Taurus’ strategy is, on the contrary, a very literalist one: the four meanings are not meant to represent a departure from a literal reading; the core of Taurus’ demonstration against the temporal interpretation consists in a strict and linguistic analysis of Tim. 28b6-8.

A passage from Theon's Expositio reveals the systematic exegesis of Aristotle's cosmology provided by Adrastus. By referring to the De caelo, Adrastus affirms the importance of the fifth element for the physical model of heavenly motion. This is the ground for his reading of Metaphysics Λ, which is focused on counteracting spheres: Adrastus aims to reconcile the homocentric model with the epicycle one. This exegesis must be seen in the wider context of the Peripatetic debate on astronomical topics: Adrastus shows a strict allegiance to Aristotle, who ought to be considered the only real auctoritas for him.

In this paper I analyse the most important pieces of evidence concerning
the structure of Middle Platonist exegesis (passages from Diogenes Laertius,
Taurus of Beirut, the anonymous Commentary on the Theaetetus, Longinus). At
first sight these sources seem to present a two-step structure in Middle Platonist
exegesis, i. e. a structure which would be quite similar to the Neoplatonic
λέξις–θεωρία model. I shall argue, however, that this is not the case: such a
structure could be ascribed (in different arrangements) to school exegetical
praxis, but it was not applied in Middle Platonist exegetical writings, which were
not bound to specific stylistic patterns.

According to a traditional account, Middle Platonists were chiefly interested in cosmology and transcendence. This also applies to their attitude towards music, which is often taken to be entirely subsumed under a theory of cosmic harmony: according to a widespread view, Middle Platonists not only did not reflect about the import of musical experiences, but definitely rejected it. In this paper I will show that this is not the case by focussing especially on Plutarch (with a coda on Maximus of Tyre and Apuleius). More specifically, I shall indicate that music plays a fundamental role in Middle Platonist psychology and ethics, for it provides Platonists both with a suitable structural model for the soul and – above all – with a crucial tool ensuring the possibility of ‘educating’ its irrational part.

The Platonic section of the De Iside (chapters 45-64) offers a complex account of Plutarch’s theory of cosmological principles. In this paper I shall supplement conventional interpretations and set out to demonstrate that: Osiris is the whole of the “positive” and ordering powers operating within the actual (that is, post-creational) world; Typhon is not the pre-cosmic soul, but the negative and destructive powers at work within it; Isis is not mere matter or the world soul, but the world soul as the material “battlefield” for opposite powers in the world; the object of Plutarch's analysis is not the pre-cosmic world, but the post-creational stage. Finally, I shall explain the logic of Plutarch’s account, which fits with the literary genre he develops in this text.

Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride has been studied from several points of view. In this paper I set out to demonstrate first of all that the core of the work fully rests on Plato’s philosophy, since according to Plutarch’s methodological assumptions Plato had grasped the truth hidden behind the Isis myth. Then I shall focus on the argumentative structure of the work, highlighting its twofold nature. The De Iside is entirely structured as a philosophical zetema, whose apex rests on Plato’s doctrine. Finally, I will argue that the “Platonic section” (45-64) is framed in a different way, its aim being to progressively deepen Plutarch’s underlying assumption: the notion of the dualistic nature of being.

The interpretation of Plato’s cosmogony was an object of quarrel also among ancient exegetes, and it is still a puzzle in contemporary scholarship. Scholars usually take this ancient quarrel to consist in the opposition between supporters of a metaphorical and sempiternalistic interpretation and a literal and temporal one. In this paper I argue against the widespread idea that the sempiternalistic interpretation must also be a metaphorical one: my analysis of the short account on this subject offered in Alcinous’ Didaskalikos shows that it is more reasonable to think that, at least in Alcinous’ view, also the sempiternalistic interpretation is a way to understand Plato’s cosmogony by appealing to its literal meaning.

In Phaedo 68b-69b Plato opposes demotic virtues, ἐυήθης σωφροσύνη and ἀνδρεῖα δειλίᾳ, to authentic virtues, σωφροσύνη and ἀνδρεῖα, which depend on the possession of φρόνησις. By taking this passage as a basis, scholars have often argued that only the philosopher is virtuous, and demotic virtue is to be definitely condemned as a hedonistically-oriented calculus. Accordingly, non philosophers have no possibility to take part into virtue, both from the point of view of motivations and from the point of view of actions. If this is the case, Plato’s ethics would imply a huge grey area encompassing the wide majority, which would necessarily act viciously. Such a restrictive view is philosophically problematic: there must be virtue, even an incomplete and imperfect virtue, also for non philosophers. Indeed, I shall argue that the Phaedo’s demotic virtue has a fundamental role in Plato’s ethics, inasmuch as it is attainable by non-philosophers and allows them at least to act virtuously, even though only philosophers do have knowledge and are virtuous. Further, I shall show that this complies very well with Plato’s intellectualism.

One of the key assumptions of Middle Platonist philosophy consists in the idea that Plato is authority. Now, since in his dialogues Plato also dealt with musical notions, and since music and harmonics played a crucial role in Platonist cosmology, the Middle Platonists felt the need to demonstrate Plato's authority also in the field of musical theory. The aim of this paper is to analyse one of the strategies applied by Middle Platonists in order to achieve this goal, that is the appropriation of the standard pattern of definitions occurring in musicological writings and the subtle reworking of its contents. It will eventually emerge that such appropriation of a musicological schema isagogicum is key in Middle Platonist technical exegesis in order to state Plato's authority also in the field of harmonics.

Cet article se propose d’analyser les références aux exégèses médio-platoniciennes sur la cosmogonie du Timée que l’on trouve dans le deuxième livre du Commentaire au Timée de Proclus. Les textes que Proclus mentionne (et que l’on considère généralement en tant que fragments, c’est-à-dire en dehors du cadre proclien) seront systématiquement examinés en considérant leur contexte et la manière dont Proclus les introduit. On pourra ainsi mettre en évidence que le témoignage de Proclus ne permet pas de soutenir que les commentaires médio-platoniciens étaient continus : la source la plus importante pour les exégèses médio-platoniciennes du Timée conduit à adopter une attitude sceptique sur cette question. On aura aussi l’occasion de remarquer d’autres aspects, concernant aussi bien l’approche exégétique médio-platonicienne que la façon dont Proclus utilisait ses sources (directes ou indirectes).

The aim of this paper is to discuss the main puzzle encountered during the development of a new collection of texts by the Middle Platonist Taurus of Beirut. Previous collections have either overlooked or poorly considered a wide-ranging and extensive criticism directed against Taurus of Beirut by Alexander of Aphrodisias (Philop. De Aet. Mund. 213, 10-216, 23). In this paper I shall newly investigate this passage and show why it must be included in its entirety in a collection of Taurus’ texts. This will also serve as a test-case for collections of Middle Platonist texts, showing that a flexible and ‘philosophical’ criterion of selection is fundamental at this philological stage too.

Exegesis of and comment on Plato (starting from the exegesis of cosmogony in Timaeus). The aim of this paper is to identify the grounds, forms and goals of Middle Platonic exegesis of Plato. Firstly, the author emphasises its general features: exegesis is the fundamental element in Middle Platonic writings; Plato’s Timaeus is its principal object; sources strongly suggest that Middle Platonic commentaries were usually Spezialkommentare, or at least did not have the form of standard running commentaries. Secondly, Middle Platonic interpretations of Plato’s cosmogony are taken into account in order to indicate the strategies which were canonically applied by exegetes: on the one hand, they considered specific lexeis, emending them or applying an exegesis kata lexin; on the other, they dealt with contents from a more general point of view by applying specific methods. Finally, the author emphasises the ideological grounds of Middle Platonic exegesis: from Middle Platonists' perspective, exegesis was only supposed to explain and clarify Plato’s text, which is already perfect, in as much as they considered it as including a complete and consistent system of doctrines.

The well known epistemological section of the Meno (96 d1-98 b9) represents a crux for scholars. Interpretations aiming to demonstrate the proximity of belief and knowledge have been refuted by referring to other Platonic passages, where a clear-cut distinction between knowledge and belief can be found. The present paper provides a running analysis of this section and shows that: 1) the image of the way to Larisa is only a dialectical argument, which does not express Plato's epistemological view; 2) the aijtiva" logismov"-argument displays, instead, Plato's genuine position on this issue. It entails a substantial distinction between belief and knowledge, a distinction grounded on their different objects. This epistemological conclusion suggests that an important distinction is present between the two kind of virtue set out in this dialogue: while a) the true virtue is grounded on knowledge and belongs to "being virtuous", b) a virtue of second degree is grounded on true belief and belongs to "doing virtuous actions".

Scholars do not agree on the authenticity of the Hippias Major. Although many among them have considered it as authentic, no satisfying argument in this sense has been offered. On the other hand, in the last years many argument against its authenticity have been indicated. The aim of this paper is to show that there is no valid argument demonstrating that Plato was not the author of this dialogue, and that it would be hard for a supporter of its inauthenticity to sustain the implications of his position.

The Larissa-argument of the Meno (96 e1-97 c5) represents a both puzzling and important passage for the epistemology and the ethic of Plato. Although several careful studies have been dedicated to this text, there are two philological problems which need further analysis: parallel passages of the platonic corpus, evidence emerging from the context and a new inspection of F could  provide arguments 1) against the expunction of orthòs at 97 a8 and 2) for the choice of Gaiser’s hostis eidòs rather than Bluck’s ei tis eidòs at 97 a9.

Theon of Smyrna was a professor of Platonism and, as the platonists of his age, an exegete of the Timaeus. The only work we have, the Expositio rerum mathematicarum ad legendum Platonem utilium, is complete and consistent: it discusses the foundations and the characteristics of the tavxi" that makes the world well structured. Theon found this doctrine in the Timaeus and in the Epinomis, and he argued it again through mathematical illustrations with the aim of demonstrating, according to Plato, the presence of harmony both in the incorporeal and in the corporeal realm: Theon's purpose can't be grasped without referring to his platonic exegetical activity.

This is a specimen of a new comprehensive volume on Plato's Timaeus. The volume includes: a substantial introductory essay by Franco Ferrari; a new critical edition, based on seven primary witnesses, a complete review of ad litteram quotations of the dialogue and a new assessment of ancient corrections of "A", a running commentary with technical notes and tables.

Is an account of hair or nails as negotiable as one of the demiurge? It should not be. The aim of this paper is to supplement existing interpretations of Timaeus' eikōs logos in order to provide wellgrounded answers to this and similar questions. More specifically, I shall demonstrate that Timaeus' account cannot be confined into a single epistemological field, namely that of unstable likeliness, because it exhibits a much more nuanced and graduated structurejust as the realities it deals with doand, as a whole, leaves minimal room for refutation and scepticism.

Scholarship on Plato('s metaphysics) is constantly growing both in terms of quantity and of complexity, and embarking in a new study on the exact philosophical import of Plato's theory of forms requires not only specific knowledge of the matter and vast argumentative skills, but also a considerable amount of bravery. Fortunately, Vasilis Politis is endowed with all of this, and his Plato's Essentialism offers an insightful, brilliant and effective exploration of the metaphysical core of Plato's philosophy, namely his theory of forms. After reading this breath-taking volume, the reader might not agree with Politis on his main claim or (as in my case) on some aspects of his