JOÃO VITOR RESINA NUNES DE MELO

The Timaeus is traditionally considered one of Plato’s last works, and thus chronologically later than the Parmenides. Against the traditional dating Owen defends that the Timaeus be dated as earlier than the Parmenides, for otherwise we face the following paradox: if the critiques advanced in the Parmenides are serious ones, why the Timaeus presents doctrines similar to those attacked? The chronology put forward by Owen is not enough to eliminate the paradoxes as has been pointed by Cherniss. The solution to the ‘interpretive paradox’ indicated would be then to acknowledge the metaphysical relevance of the elements in the Timaeus that set it apart from the earlier dialogues and try to arrive at an interpretation that rehabilitates the doctrine of Forms in view of Parmenides’ critiques.