Seminario del 2017

2017
08 giugno
Prof. Salomon Ofman - Université Paris 7
Seminario di storia della matematica
In the second lecture about Plato’s mathematical anti-atomism, “The mathematical anti-atomism of Plato’s cosmology II.- Understanding the ‘Khôra’ in the Timaeus”, I will try to explain the role of the ‘khôra’ (the ‘space’) as a fundamental tool in Plato’s anti-atomism. It is well-known the ‘khôra’ is one of the most puzzling notion in one of Plato’s most difficult dialogues. The modern ‘Zeitgeist’ is that Plato’s cosmology or more exactly cosmogony in the Timaeus, is not so far from some mathematical hallucination without any connection to ‘real’ Physics. I will try to show it is a complete misunderstanding of the text, and in particular the frenetic research of unity in contemporary Physics is the very fundamental objective of Plato’s Timaeus and the ‘khôra’ is an essential tool for such a result.

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