Simposio e filosofia: il problema del “Dio geometra”

Abstract

According to Plutarch, philosophical questions could be treated in the table talks, but with caution. The most philosophical problem concerns the meaning of Plato’s dictum that the God is always doing geometry (Quaest. conv. VIII 2. 718 B-720 C). The text proposes four solutions, all in the spirit of Platonic philosophy. The first one is epistemological, the second ethical and political, the third cosmological and finally the fourth is cosmological and metaphysical. The correct answer is the fourth, according to which the meaning of the dictum is that the creation of the world can be equated to the solution of a geometrical problem, namely the problem to construct, given two figures, a third figure which is materially identical to one and formally similar to the other. In this context, Plutarch introduces a theory based on three principles: God (as demiurge), matter (as substrate) and the world of ideas (as model).