The Timaeus dialogue contains many fascinating ideas: the craftsman, the soul, and the cosmology. However, what struck me most was its discussion of how the world is repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, with gods founding their own settlements. This provides a justification for the nation-state as something rooted in natural law.
This idea is easy to dismiss. Athens cannot be expected to rise again and again, and I neither believe in gods nor feel compelled to take their existence seriously. While the author frames this cycle as plausible, I think it’s something we can disregard. What I find more compelling is how this cycle of destruction and renewal mirrors everyday human experience—not on a divine or apocalyptic scale, but in the span of a lifetime. It’s visible in the rise and fall of governments, organizations, and individuals like celebrities and politicians.
It made me reflect on how people appear, grow into their roles, and eventually fade away, replaced by a new generation with fresh ideas about continuity and identity. On a broader scale, even the concept of national identity seems to dissolve and reform over time. Generations forget parts of their shared history while attempting to preserve the notion of a national character, constantly reinterpreting what it means to belong.