Is Plato an atomist? considerations on the primary bodies and their constitution
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Abstract
The text presents an analysis of Plato's dialogue Timaeus regarding the composition of the matter that constitutes the generated world. The objective is to answer the question of whether Plato is an atomist and, if so, in what sense. To do this, three proposals are analyzed: Democritus' atomism, surface atomism, and mathematical atomism, based on Brisson and Ofman's anti-atomist proposal and Di Giacomo's chemical analysis. The study focuses on the conformation of matter and the composition of the Universe. Two principles that atomist proposals should have been proposed: the theory of the constitution of the universe is based on minimal bodies that form the entirety of the world and are interchangeable between them, and it simplifies the composition of the Universe. It is concluded that Plato is not an atomist in the strict sense of the word, but his theory shares some similarities with atomism, such as the idea that matter is composed of minimal particles and the importance of proportion in the conformation of the Universe.
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