The Timaeus on the Imperfection of Reality

The classic statement of this philosophy is given by Plato. In the Timaeus, discussing the formation of the physical world, Plato recounts the myth of the demiurge. Matter, we are told, was originally unformed and chaotic; a godlike soul enters and tries to shape the chaos into a realm of perfect beauty. The demiurge, however, fails; matter proves to be recalcitrant; it takes the imprint of beauty only so far and thereafter resists all efforts to perfect it. Hence, Plato concludes, matter is a principle of imperfection, inherently in conflict with the highest ideals of the spirit. In a perfect universe, matter should obey consciousness without reservation. Since it does not, the universe–not any man-made group or institution, but the physical universe itself–is flawed; it is a perpetual battleground of the noble vs. the actual.

What the Timaeus actually presents, in mythological form, is the conflict between existence and a mind that tries to rewrite it, but cannot. In effect, the myth’s meaning is the self-declared failure of the primacy-of-consciousness viewpoint. The same failure is inherent in any version of Plato’s creed. Whenever men expect reality to conform to their wish simply because it is their wish, they are doomed to metaphysical disappointment. This leads them to the dichotomy: my dream vs. the actual which thwarts it; or the inner vs. the outer; or value vs. fact; or the moral vs. the practical. The broadest name of the dichotomy is the “spiritual” realm vs. the “material” realm.¹