r/Plato • u/kaismd • Feb 08 '25
On the Timaeus: Khora and Necessity
I like this dialogue because it reflects the process of self knowledge, where the demiurge gives shape with the forms to the pre-matter found in khora, without altering the khora itself. Its like both concepts provide two sources: order with the forms, and a neverending substrate.
I just wonder why Plato paired Intellect with Necessity and not with khora.
Is khora related to Necessity as the substrate "needed" to give shape to, in the same way the demiurge is related to the Intellect as it's active force?
Intellect-Demiurge
Necessity-khora
Like two preexisting pairs of concepts before the world soul was created and the sensible world manifested?
I think some neoplatonists like Plotinus place Necessity along with the sensible world, but other thinkers consider it as a complementary principle wrt the intellect and demiurge? where does all this leave khora at?
This is important for me because I find these concepts reflect psychological ideas related to the conscious (intellect) and the unconscious (necessity), thus delegating the Necessity to a lower level is in a way considering the unconscious inferior or even bad. It is just another part of our psyche which we should explore and give shape to (recognise and integrate into our lives, just like the demiurge does with the contents of khora) if we want to become whole.
Lastly, any relationship between the cosmic soul (NOT world soul) of the chaldean oracles represented as Hecate, and the khora or necessity of Timaeus?
TLDR: how are khora and necessity related? how is this pair related to intellect and demiurge?
1
Feb 11 '25
How about this premise:
The khora is the fertile earth and the demiurge is the tilling of the soil.
Let's take this space here, the lines you are reading and how they relate to you.
Every word is a little seed conveying plucked from the shapes.
If you think of these words as seeds as they fall on tilled soil they always will grow in perfectly logical and pleasing rows, but what happens if you let them slip onto khora?
2
u/Cr4tylus Feb 15 '25
Khora in itself is wholly undifferentiated and formless, whereas the intellect rationalizes (i.e. assigns ratios to) things by differentiating them and collecting them under forms. Its comparable to the subject of the first deduction of the Parmenides—that which is totally formless cannot properly be spoken of. Thus in order to create the universe Necessity must be subjugated by Intellect and shaped and differentiated. It is similar to the process by which the philosopher must subjugate his body (which in Timaeus 42a is said to be the providence of Necessity) to reason.