ABSTRACT
Timaeus, the spokesman of the dialogue, calls the cosmos itself a living god, constituted of a rational soul and a physical body, both created from preexisting stuffs by the divine craftsman. The orderly motions of the heavenly bodies, which in turn guarantee the regularity of other physical processes, are described as being only the visible manifestations of the regular motions of the soul of the cosmos. The motions produced by all encounters would then be conducted through the body to the soul, and strike against it. Just as important, it will conduct its enquiry more and more methodically, so that it will not merely 'happen to encounter' the objects of its cognition, but it will examine them and analyse what they are the same as and what they are different from in a more and more systematic manner.
