Genuinely surprised at how many people don't make the connection between the platonic elements and states of matter.
Earth = Solid
Water = Liquid
Air = Gas
Fire = Plasma
"CT they wouldn't have known what a plasma was" they didn't know what a gas was either. That's the whole point. They're observing the same physical phenomena we are, but they don't have the body of knowledge that we do.
what about supercritical fluids, degenerate matter, bose-einstein condensates, fermi condensates, quark-gluon plasma, and colour-glass condensates, though?
Plato didn't write about those because his brain was tiny and shrivelled like a raisin.








