Note 65 — Chapter XXV · PHÆDON.

Plato, Timæus, p. 46 C-D. αἴτια — ξυναίτια — ξυμμεταίτια. He says that most persons considered the ξυναίτια as αἴτια. And he himself registers them as such (Timæus, p. 68 E). He there distinguishes the αἴτια and ξυναίτια as two different sorts of αἴτια, the divine and the necessary, in a remarkable passage: where he tells us that we ought to study the divine causes, with a view to the happiness of life, as far as our nature permits — and the necessary causes for the sake of the divine: for that we cannot in any way apprehend, or understand, or get sight of the divine causes alone, without the necessary causes along with them (69 A).

In Timæus, pp. 47-48, we find again νοῦς and ἀνάγκη noted as two distinct sorts of causes co-operating to produce the four elements. It is farther remarkable that Necessity is described as “the wandering or irregular description of Cause” — τὸ τῆς πλανωμένης εἶδος αἰτίας. Eros and Ἀνάγκη are joined as co-operating — in Symposion, pp. 195 C, 197 B.