c

Bibliographical reference

Ast, Friedrich. Ueber die Materie im Platonischen Timaeos. In Abhandlungen der Philosophisch-Philologischen Classe der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 1. München: Verl. der Königl. Akad., 1835.

Description

This treatise investigates the notion of “matter” in Plato’s philosophy and in the Timaeus. The author attempts to examine different points of view in Plato’s dialogue concerning the origins and building of the world, also in connection with Plato’s gnoseological theory. Georg Anton Friedrich Ast (1778-1841) was a German philosopher and philologist, and a specialist of Plato; he published a complete edition of Plato’s work with a Latin translation and commentaries (1819-1832). He considered as spurious many dialogues which were traditionally admitted as genuine (Meno, Euthydemus, Charmides, Lysis, Laches, First and Second Alcibiades, Hippias Major and Minor, Ion, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito), even against Aristotle’s explicit assertion. He included the Timaeus among the genuine dialogues (third group of dialogues, combining poetic and dialectic elements).