Explain Platos conception of the cosmos, emphasising the ways in whish his thought represents a a synthesis of pre-socratic thinkers and the ways in which his thought reflects his idealist epistemological stance.

Question

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "Plato cosmos" to get these possible sources:

http://www.stenudd.com/myth/greek/plato.htm
(Broken Link Removed)
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/essays/separate.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/timaeus.htm
http://www.jonathanbaker.org/courses/ay9/week4/hw6/

You can search within the articles under the key word, "cosmos."

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

the question the i need help on is change, modifition or addition

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I hope this helps a little. Thanks for asking.

thats exactly how the question is. This is my answer so far.

Plato believed that the cosmos were made by a dimaruge (god). He believed that the world was made of 4 elements:earth,air,fire, and water. In addition, he added a fifth element which would represnt the universe as a whole. Plato who shared the smae technique as many other pre-socratic philophers, felt that the elements had to be reduced to mathmatics abstacts, for ture knowledge is only found in mathamatics. As a result, he reduced the elements to trianges which were incorpereal. Thus showing that mathamatics was the key to seeking out knowledge. In addtion, Plato says in the Timesus, that the gods used planning and reasoning, in order to create the cosmos. Once again, this shows his idealist stance, for he thinks the cosmos are based on an idea.