The third kind: an analysis of the receptacle in Plato's Timaeus

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the irreducible metaphysical conditions for the generation and persistence of the cosmos, as described in the cosmology of Plato’s Timaeus. These metaphysical conditions are the framework on which the cosmos is generated and sustained. Plato distinguishes between three fundamental kinds of being: 1) the stable, intelligible model, 2) the fleeting, phenomenal images, and 3) the receptacle, the place in which sensible things appear in the image of the formal model. An analysis of Plato’s receptacle (chora) as a distinct metaphysical reality, illuminates the need for this third kind of being to create a relation between these irreducible and inseparable conditions. Plato’s third kind reveals the nature of phenomena to be like images reflected in a mirror. This cosmology of continuity between the second and third kinds of being is in contrast to Aristotle’s notion of phenomena as discreet, primary substances. Plato’s receptacle embraces material and efficient causality. This mysterious third kind is the non-nothing, non-being entity that completes the account of the first two kinds by providing a place for their relation.