exact circles ( the perfect curve) along with the crystalline spheres (the perfect solid) that held them in place. The spheres were another Pythagorean notion, and the Pythagorean preoccupation with sound also shows itself in Philolaus belief that the spheres of the various planet made celestial music as they turned a belief that persisted even in the time of Kepler two thousand years later. We still use the phrase the music of the spheres to epitomize heavenly sounds or the stark beauty of outer space. This insistence that the heavens must reflect the perfection fo abstract mathematics in its simplest form held absolute sway over astronomical thought until Keplers time, even though comprised with reality had to be made constantly, beginning shortly after Platos death with Eudoxus and Callippus.In the dialogue Timaeus, by the way, Plato invented a moralistic tale about a thoroughly fictitious land he called Atlantis. If there is a Valhalla for philosophers, Plato must be sitting there in endless chagrin, thinking of how many foolish thousands, in all the centuries since his time, down to the very present day thousands who have never read his dialogue of absorbed a sentence of his serious teachings nevertheless believed with all their hearts in the reality of Atlantis. ( To be sure, recent evidence of an Aegean island that exploded volcanically in 1400 B.C. may have given rise to legends, that inspired Platos fiction). Platos influence extended long past his own life and, indeed, never died. The Academy remained a going institution until A.D. 529, when the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian, ordered it closed. It was the last stronghold of paganism in a Christian world. Platos philosophy, even after that date, maintained a strong influence on the thinking of the Christian Church throughout the early Middle Ages. It was not until the thirteenth century that the views of Aristotle gained dominance....
