Plato’s Dietetics for Intellectuals in Timaeus 86b–90d

Abstract

In this paper I focus on the dietetic discussion at the end of the Timaeus (86b–90d) and read it against the background of the medical dietetics of its day. I try to show that Plato’s version of dietetics is deeply rooted in the preceding medical tradition and that it draws in particular on ideas attested in the Hippocratic treatises On Regimen and Airs, Waters, Places. On the other hand, I also argue that Plato is most likely the first author ever to identify intellectuals as a specific dietetic category and to propose a preventive regimen adapted to the specific needs of mathematicians, philosophers, and other men of letters. Therefore, his dietetic discussion in the Timaeus deserves recognition as an important contribution to the history of dietetic therapy and prevention.