Order in Plato’s Philosophy

Abstract

Order in Plato’s Philosophy. – The article deals on several levels with the conception of “order” in the context of Plato’s philosophy. First, it focuses on formal occurrences of the word “cosmos” (Greek equivalent of “order”) in Plato’s dialogues. Second, it explains various semantic analogies or alternatives of “order” in the whole of Plato’s philosophy, namely on the cosmological and epistemological level. Third, it outlines some possible analogies between the “order” and “chaos” on the one side and the principles of “One” and “Indefinite Duality” from Plato’s so-called protology or unwritten doctrines on the other side.