Plato Scroll › Encyclopedia › Paradeigma

Concept

Paradeigma

παράδειγμα · paradeigma

TimaeusFormsmodelcosmology

The eternal pattern the divine craftsman looks to in shaping the world.

The pattern

A paradeigma is a model or pattern — the original after which a copy is made. In the Timaeus the Demiurge fashions the cosmos by looking to an eternal paradeigma, the realm of the Forms, so that the visible world becomes a moving image of an unchanging original. To make well is always to make in imitation of a model that is itself most complete and beautiful.

See also

Open this entry in the reader · every entry