Plato's Theory of Explanation: A Study of the Cosmological Account in the Timaeus - Paperback

by Anne F. Ashbaugh (Author)

Here is the question: what constitutes a good explanation of phenomena? Whereas true being (forms) can be known through dialectic, concrete phenomena can only be explained. An explanation is verisimilar of dialectical knowledge as concrete things are images of eternal ones. Ashbaugh shows how Plato subtly develops the notion of imaging and explaining, accounting for how physical things can be different from forms and how they are connected to forms.