On some analogies of modern science with Plato’s science in Timaeus and on Plato’s influence on Kepler and Ptolemy

Abstract

The Timaeus of Plato is the only one of his Dialogues devoted to science. Among his readers we find Descartes, Boyle, Kepler, Heisenberg, Hermann Weyl and, more recently, Frank Wilczek. The aspects of the Democritean atomistic theory and those of Plato’s geometrical atomism in Timaeus are discussed and compared. Plato presents the first mathematical theory of the structure of matter at three levels, analogous to the modern molecular, atomic and sub-atomic levels. In an impressive progress with respect to the Democritean theory with its unalterable micro-entities, Plato introduces in science the inter-transformability of elementary corpuscles and so the first “chemical” reactions in the history of science. Analogies with modern physics and chemistry are described throughout and Plato’s influence on Kepler and Ptolemy is also treated. The different fortunes of Plato’s geometric atomism and celestial motion in Timaeus are described in the Discussion section.