The much-anticipated anthology on Plato'sTimaeus--Plato's singular dialogue on the creation of the universe, the nature of the physical world, and the place of persons in the cosmos--examining all dimensions of one of the most important books in Western Civilization: its philosophy, cosmology, science, and ethics, its literary aspects and reception. Contributions come from leading scholars in their respective fields, including Sir Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics. Parts of or earlier versions of these papers were first presented at the Timaeus Conference, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in September of 2007.

To this day, Plato's Timaeus grounds the form of ethical and political thinking called Natural Law--the view that there are norms in nature that provide the patterns for our actions and ground the objectivity of human values. Beyond the intellectual content of the dialogue's core, its literary frame is also the source of the myth of Atlantis, giving the West the concept of the "lost world."

From Platonic space to Presocratic vortices, from Philosopher-Kings to Craftsman-Gods and from modern physics to the myth of Atlantis, One Book, The Whole Universe presents in one volume the most up-to-date and penetrating scholarship on Plato's Timaeus by some of the greatest minds alive today. Contributors
Ann Bergren
Gábor Betegh
Sean Carroll
Alan Code
Zina Giannopoulou
Verity Harte
Thomas Kjeller Johansen
Charles H. Kahn
Anthony J. Leggett
Anthony A. Long
Stephen Menn
Richard D. Mohr
Kathryn A. Morgan
Alexander P.D. Mourelatos
Ian Mueller
Thomas M. Robinson
Barbara M. Sattler
Allan Silverman
Jon Solomon
Anthony Vidler
Matthias Vorwerk
Donald Zeyl