Abstract

This chapter focuses on the metaphysical innovations Plato introduces in the _Timaeus_ to solve (some of) the difficulties he has wrestled with in the preceding dialogues. It argues that by introducing the _paradeigma_, Plato reifies structure into a single Form. The _paradeigma_ is all the Forms, which are now primitively structured into one single Form, as qualitative aspects of it. This radical change in Plato’s conception of the Forms brings about an equally significant change in his account of participating in the Forms. Plato comes to endorse a new explanatory ‘mechanism’ for property qualification, that is, _similarity_, and moves from _constitutional_ to _qualitative overlap_ between Forms and objects. In the _Timaeus_, Plato enriches his account by introducing _efficient_ causation in his system: the operation of a divine agent, the _Demiurge_, to implement imitation. Further, the chapter shows how Plato finds in the _Timaeus_ his own solution to the Third Man regress.