Hupodoche: The Nurse of Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus

Abstract

Plato’s main ideas about “receptacle” (hupodoche) can be found in Timaeus. The purpose of this dialogue is giving an explanation on how the world we live in has came to being. This world is not an infinite one as the world which consists of Ideas. Therefore, there must be a way to explain its beginning. Plato describes the origin of the universe with the father analogy (poietes kai pate) and by receptacle which is explained as a “third kind” (triton genos, 48e4) and receives everything but has no attribute whatsoever by its own and the nurse of all becoming. As a result, in this paper it is planned to make an ontological and epistemological reading of hupodoche.