Image, Flux, and Space in Plato's "Timaeus"

Abstract

H ERACLITUS WROTE THAT YOU CANNOT step into the same river twice for the waters are ever flowing new upon you (B49a, B12, B91, A6). We are told by Aristotle (Metaphysics 1010all-14) that Cratylus, a follower of Heraclitus, revised this slogan to read one cannot step into the same river even once, and then stopped talking altogether. Cratylus believed that nothing whatsoever may be predicated of the phenomena in flux. We are also told by Aristotle that Plato was a follower of Cratylus and adopted Cratylus' views into his metaphysics (987a30-bl). In this paper, I will discuss to what degree this is true. The paper has two sections. The first gives a new analysis of the tortuous and much debated' passage of the Timaeus in which Plato discusses the possibility of making predications of the phenomena in flux and in the course of which he formally introduces his conception of space. The passage is Timaeus 49b-50b. The second section is a general discussion of Plato's conception of space.