Φύσις en el libro X de las Leyes

Abstract

This paper defends the unity of Plato’s conception of nature and shows the doctrinaire continuity between the Timaeus and the theory exposed in Book X of the Laws. In addition, it argues for the identification of the evil soul in the Laws with the chora in the Timaeus and the somatoeides in the Statesman. In this way the Sophistic opposition between material nature and the soul that depends on it is overcome through the differentiation between a strong meaning of physis (mind and its derivatives) and a weakened meaning of it (the chora and its derivatives, where the derivatives of the chora are the result of the action of the mind over it).

Keywords

• Nature
• Law
• Laws
• Timaeus
• cosmology
• chora