Plato's Cosmology and its Ethical Dimensions (review)

The ethical implications of Plato's late cosmology rarely receive scholarly treatment. Carone's book is a welcome exception. Carone divides her book into nine chapters. After an introductory chapter, the next six chapters form three pairs, with the first chapter of each pair offering an interpretation of the cosmology of a particular late dialogue, and the second presenting the ethical implications of that cosmology. Her eighth chapter deals with the Laws X, and her final chapter is a conclusion.

In the introductory chapter, Carone puts forth several theses which fall under two major themes: the immanence of the intelligible in the sensible, and the wide accessibility of the means towards happiness. Under the first theme lies the claim that the Demiurge of the Timaeus and other dialogues is not a transcendent creator god but is instead a mythical symbol for the immanent intelligence of the universe. Carone also denies that Plato subscribes to any robust mind-body dualism in the human sphere, arguing instead that his view is closer to Aristotle's hylomorphism. These claims go hand in hand, since, according to Carone, Plato holds that the human mind and the divine mind are isomorphic. Under the second theme comes the claim that the late cosmology provides a populist ethical view, as opposed to the elitist view of Plato's middle period. Thus, the entire cosmos provides a model for humans to follow that will allow the masses to attain happiness. Philosophy remains the best way to achieve happiness, but non-philosophers are no longer either excluded from happiness or limited to a happiness dependent upon the rule of philosophers.

In chapters 2 and 3, Carone explores the cosmology of the Timaeus. She draws a distinction between the mythical elements of the cosmology and the straightforward argumentation involving the world-soul, concluding that the Demiurge is a symbolic representation of the world-soul. One reason that Plato uses myth in the Timaeus is to provide a role model to which humans may more easily relate. The Demiurge's role, and therefore the role of the world-soul, is to subordinate the mechanistic necessity of the material world. By studying the motions of the world-soul (astronomy), humans can mirror the consistency of motion there, and thus order the mechanistic aspects of their own lives (the body) just as the world-soul orders the cosmos. Since the Demiurge/world-soul moves, it is dependent upon mechanism—i.e., it is immanent in a material body—because body is required for movement. The Forms are still transcendent, belonging to the realm of being, but the Demiurge/world-soul is not part of that realm and instead acts as a link between the visible and the intelligible realm.

In chapters 4 and 5, Carone gives an interpretation of the Philebus which brings it into harmony with her reading of the Timaeus. In the Philebus, chaos becomes an ordered cosmos, by the imposition of the limited on the unlimited, and, as in the Timaeus, it is the nous of the world-soul that acts as the efficient cause in this process. Humans can mirror this at the microcosmic level by privileging pure pleasures, or pleasures that are in no way unlimited, and certain mixed pleasures, in so far as they have limit, thus maximizing pleasure and achieving happiness. Carone again detects populist tendencies in the Philebus because, although the maximizing of pleasure requires the use of dialectic in a general sense, it does not require the high-powered philosopher's knowledge of the Forms.

Carone meets a potential challenge to her interpretation of the later Plato in chapters 6 and 7. The myth found in the Politicus of alternating cosmic cycles is usually read as implying that the current cycle is one in which god has abdicated his rule of the cosmos; but if this were the case, then the nous of the world-soul, i.e., god, could not serve as a role model for...