Plato shared the Pythagoreans’ fascination with geometry, and The Timaeus contains one of the first attempts to use mathematics to describe the natural world. ‘Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here’ is said to have been inscribed on the lintel of the Academy’s entrance; the same phrase is written above the swipecard-sealed doors of any Department of Physics, even if you can’t see it. Then, too, if Plato’s science is barely distinguishable from theology so, to judge by the pronouncements of some physicists, is modern science: ‘If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate
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