La tecnicizzazione della natura in Platone

In the Phaedo, Plato lays the foundation for a technomorphic understanding of nature, according to which the physical universe is the outcome of intelligent, good-pursuing operations. This idea is expanded upon in the Timaeus, where Plato makes extensive use of the craftsman metaphor, centered on the figure of a demiurge who builds the universe from an eternal model (the world of ideas). In the Timaeus, however, the craftsman metaphor is supplemented – and sometimes replaced – by the biological metaphor, which conceives the universe as a living being (zoon), generated by another living being. Within a likely tale (eikos mythos), Plato illustrates the structure of the universe, employing a twofold metaphor, that of the craftsman and the biological one. In book X of the Laws, the reconciliation between nature and craft is further explored, because the true nature of things consists of craft (techne), that is a rational principle of organisation.

In conclusion, Plato's position does not seem to differ much from the one Aristotle sets forth in his Physics. [Publisher's text]