What is admirable about this book is that the author supports a reading of the Timaeus (and of Laws X) that is not likely to be popular among scholars and commentators in the field, and she does so with great tenacity and attention to detail. She does this not only through analysis of the texts themselves, but also by engaging ... Read morewith the views of earlier commentators such as Archer-Hind, Taylor and Burnet as well as more recent ones, and in a way that is commensurate with the rigour that these commentatorsrequire. She supports a metaphysical reading of the Timaeus, in which the Demiurge and Ananke (necessity) are viewed as real operating causes in the creation of Cosmos out of the pre-existing chaos. What is particularly interesting is the fact that shemakes the further, and contentious, step of identifying in Laws X what she claims are descendants of these two primary causes, but operating within the world, in a way that facilitates the aims of the text (the upholding of piety against impiety). It is her claim that we are dealing here with a continuous metaphysical development between the two texts. There can never be, in such matters, a final and unchallengeable position ? the best that we can hope for is a well-argued case, and this book certainly
Andros Loizou, University of Central Lancashire What is admirable about this book is that the author supports a reading of the Timaeus (and of Laws X) that is not likely to be popular among scholars and commentators in the field, and she does so with great tenacity and attention to detail. She does this not only through analysis of the texts themselves, but also by engaging with the views of earlier commentators such as Archer-Hind, Taylor and Burnet as well as more recent ones, and in a way that is commensurate with the rigour that these commentators require. She supports a metaphysical reading of the Timaeus, in which the Demiurge and Ananke (necessity) are viewed as real operating causes in the creation of Cosmos out of the pre-existing chaos. What is particularly interesting is the fact that she makes the further, and contentious, step of identifying in Laws X what she claims are descendants of these two primary causes, but operating within the world, in a way that facilitates the aims of the text (the upholding of piety against impiety). It is her claim that we are dealing here with a continuous metaphysical development between the two texts. There can never be, in such matters, a final and unchallengeable position – the best that we can hope for is a well-argued case, and this book certainly provides that.
Andros Loizou, University of Central Lancashire Show Less