{"product_id":"9781411467033","title":"Timaeus and Critias (Barnes \u0026 Noble Digital Library)","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ePlato’s\u003c\/b\u003e ambitious dialogue \u003ci\u003eTimaeus \u003c\/i\u003eand the unfinished \u003ci\u003eCritias\u003c\/i\u003e were meant to be part of a trilogy that would outline a proper and sufficiently detailed natural philosophy and cosmology. The \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e is Plato’s spirited response to the cosmogony and physics of the “atheist” Atomist philosophers Leucippus and Democritus. The \u003ci\u003eCritias\u003c\/i\u003e presents what might be a famous Platonic fiction: the story of Atlantis, recounted as a moral metaphor for the cycles of human history. In Plato’s philosophy, history and nature are both governed by the order that Reason imposes on an initially chaotic and recalcitrant material universe. Both natural philosophy and philosophic history are, in this view, imbued with rational meaning; the serious reader is expected to gain a proper understanding of moral values in addition to grasping the mechanisms of the material universe and human history. Conversely, according to Plato, the failure to study philosophy properly is dangerous for morality and would allow the ordered to return to chaos.","brand":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47127762141424,"sku":"9781411467033","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781411467033_p0.jpg?v=1769897273","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781411467033","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}