Everet Smith

By engaging with two Platonic texts—the Philebus and the Timaeus—the following paper explores questions regarding the metaphysical categories that constitute time in the ancient tradition: aiôn, chronos, and kairos. In the Timaeus, Plato claims that the world is given an “aiônic” or eternal character by virtue of the perfect image upon which it is modeled. According to Heleen Keizer the use of aiôn here has long troubled scholars, as it was often thought that the aiônic quality could only be applicable to the perfect model, and not to the imperfect material copy. In response to these debates in the literature, I suggest that there is a manner in which the aiônic, or eternal, relates itself to time: the aiônic is related by virtue of kairos. Often understood as a “timeliness” or a necessity, I argue that there is an additional property of kairos that can be understood as “measurement” or metrios. I pursue an argument for the ontological or metaphysical equivalence of metrios with kairos, challenging some assumptions concerning the relationship between aiôn, chronos, and kairos; for example, that kairos is an externality that suddenly interrupts the already established relationship between aiôn and chronos. Proposing this ontological equivalency contributes to ongoing debates concerning the metaphysics of temporality insofar as “timeliness” or “the right time” is altered on a metaphysical scale if it is established that timeliness is immanent to the coherent whole of aiôn and chronos. By virtue of this relationship I suggest that it is always, or eternally, the right time to undertake the meaningful action that is implied in the common use of kairos. The relationship I establish between aiôn and kairos also establishes a coherent link between linear time (chronos) and eternity (aiôn), which is significant due to the former often having been considered a degradation of the latter.