Editing Timaeus (dialogue) (section)

===The elements===
Timaeus claims that the minute particle of each element had a special [[Platonic solid|geometric shape]]: [[tetrahedron]] (fire), [[octahedron]] (air), [[icosahedron]] (water), and [[cube]] (earth).

{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin: auto;" cellspacing="4"
| [[File:Tetrahedron.gif|140px]] || [[File:Octahedron.gif|150px]] || [[File:Icosahedron.gif|150px]] || [[File:Hexahedron.gif|125px]] ||
|-
| [[Tetrahedron|Tetrahedron (fire)]] || [[Octahedron|Octahedron (air)]] || [[Icosahedron|Icosahedron (water)]] || [[Cube|Cube (earth)]] ||
|}
[[File:Dodecahedron.gif|thumb|upright=0.56|[[Dodecahedron]] – the [[Aether (classical element)|fifth element]]]]
Timaeus makes conjectures on the composition of the four elements which some [[ancient Greeks]] thought constituted the physical universe: earth, water, air, and fire. Timaeus links each of these elements to a certain [[Platonic solid]]: the element of earth would be a cube, of air an octahedron, of water an icosahedron, and of fire a tetrahedron.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Tim.+53c Plato, Timaeus, 53c]</ref> Each of these perfect [[polyhedron|polyhedra]] would be in turn composed of triangular faces the [[Special right triangles#Angle-based|30-60-90]] and the 45-45-90 triangles. The faces of each element could be broken down into its component right-angled triangles, either isosceles or scalene, which could then be put together to form all of physical matter. Particular characteristics of matter, such as water's capacity to extinguish fire, was then related to shape and size of the constituent triangles. The fifth element (i.e. Platonic solid) was the [[dodecahedron]], whose faces are not triangular, and which was taken to represent the shape of the Universe as a whole, possibly because of all the elements it most approximates a sphere, which Timaeus has already noted was the shape into which God had formed the Universe.<ref>Plato offers an analysis of third kind of reality, between the intelligible and the sensible, namely as [[Khôra]] (χώρα). This designates a receptacle (Timaeus 48e), a space, a material substratum, or an interval in which the "[[Theory of Forms|forms]]" were originally held; it "gives space" and has maternal overtones (a womb, matrix). For recent studies on this notion and its impact not only in history of philosophy but on [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] see for example: [[Nader El-Bizri]], "{{'}}''Qui-êtes vous Khôra?''{{'}}: Receiving Plato's Timaeus''," ''Existentia Meletai-Sophias'', Vol. XI, Issue 3-4 (2001), pp.&nbsp;473–490; [[Nader El-Bizri]], "''ON KAI KHORA'': Situating [[Heidegger]] between the ''[[Sophist]]'' and the Timaeus," ''Studia Phaenomenologica'', Vol. IV, Issue 1-2 (2004), pp.&nbsp;73–98 [http://www.zetabooks.com/studia-phaenomenologica-volume-4-issue-1-2-2004-issues-on-brentano-husserl-and-heidegger.html]; Nader El-Bizri, "''Ontopoiēsis'' and the Interpretation of [[Plato]]'s ''Khôra''," ''Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research'', Vol. LXXXIII (2004), pp.&nbsp;25–45.''</ref>

The extensive final part of the dialogue addresses the creation of humans, including the [[soul]], [[anatomy]], [[perception]], and [[transmigration of the soul]]. Plato also discusses the creation of the body, as well as the causes of bodily and psychic diseases.<ref>For psychic diseases, see Douglas R. Campbell, "The Soul's Tomb: Plato on the Body as the Cause of Psychic Disorders," ''Apeiron'' 55 (1): 119-139. 2022. For bodily diseases, see Harold W. Miller, "The Aetiology of Disease in Plato's ''Timaeus''," ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 93: 175-187. 1962.</ref>