Plato's Cosmogony

(Originally written July 9, 2006 in Book 4)

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell

Chapter XVII - Plato's Cosmogony

God created the world by rearranging preexisting matter.

God created an intelligent soul and put it into the body. They world itself is one large animal.

The four elements are fire, air, water and earth existing in a proportional relationship.

Time is eternal.

The sun was made so animals could learn arithmetic.

Days, nights, months and years taught us numbers, which the whole world is composed of. (Everything can be represented as a number).

There are four types of animals
1) gods
2) birds
3) fishes
4) land animals

The gods are mainly fire and God (the creator) told them he could, but wouldn't destroy them. He charged them with creating the rest of the moral world. (He had already made the immortal parts).

Each star has a soul.

Souls have sensation, love, fear and anger. If a soul overcomes these it is righteous; otherwise it is not.

If a man lives a good life he dies and becomes a star; if he lives a bad life he will become a woman, then a woman will become a brute. This will continue until one lives a good life. FMAG

God put souls on earth, the moon, other planets, and stars and left the gods to make their bodies. FMAG

2 types of causes:
1) intelligent ones
2) moved by others, who move others

Intelligent causes are mind and designed and purposed. The others are not and are disorderly.

Space is something intermediate between the world of essence (knowledge) and the world of sensible things (opinion).

A man has two souls, one created by God (immortal), one by the gods (mortal).