ΚΡΑΤΥΛΟΣ
Thomas Taylor (1804)
Plato · Thomas Taylor (1804)
The Cratylus debates whether the correctness of names is natural — words somehow fitting the things they name — or merely a matter of human convention (the nature-versus-custom question applied to language). Socrates spins out a dizzying series of etymologies, deriving the names of gods and concepts from their supposed meanings.
Behind the wordplay lies a serious point: names are tools that image reality, but they are unreliable guides to it, and knowledge must finally rest not on words but on the Forms themselves.
The Platonic dialogue on the correctness of names sets the view that names belong to things by nature against the view that they hold only by convention. Socrates, examining a long series of etymologies, suggests that names may image the things they name — yet warns that one cannot learn the truth of things from names alone, but must study the things themselves.
For the later Platonists the dialogue was a charter for the philosophical reading of the divine names, and its play of etymologies fed directly into the Neoplatonic theology of the gods.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Hermogenes: Are you willing, then, that we should communicate this discourse to Socrates?
Cratylus: If you think proper.
Hermogenes: Cratylus here, Socrates, says, that there is a rectitude of name naturally subsisting in every thing; and that this is not a name which certain persons pronounce from custom, while they articulate a portion of their voice; but that there is a certain rectitude of names which is naturally the same both among Greeks and Barbarians. I ask him, therefore, whether Cratylus is his true name, or not. He confesses it is. I then inquire of him, what is the appellation belonging to Socrates? He replies, Socrates. In all other particulars, therefore, I say, is not that the name by which we call each? Yet, says he, your name is not Hermogenes, though all men should agree in calling you so. And upon my eagerly desiring to know the meaning of what he says, he does not declare any thing, but uses dissimulation towards me, feigning as if he was thinking about something on this subject, which if he should be willing to relate clearly, he would oblige me to agree with him in opinion, and to say the same as he does. If, therefore, you can by any means conjecture this divination of Cratylus, I shall very gladly hear you; or rather, if it is agreeable to you, I should much more gladly hear your opinion concerning the rectitude of names.
Socrates: O Hermogenes, son of Hipponicus, according to the antient proverb, beautiful things are difficult to be understood; and the discipline respecting names is no small affair. If, therefore, I had heard that demonstration of Prodicus, valued at fifty drachmas, which instructed the hearer in this very partilar, as he himself says, nothing would hinder but that you might immediately know the truth respecting the rectitude of names: but I never have heard it; and am acquainted with nothing more than the circumstance about the drachmas. Hence I am unacquainted with the truth respecting these particulars; but am nevertheless prepared to investigate this affair, along with you and Cratylus. But as to his telling you, that your name is not in reality Hermogenes, I suspect that in this he derides you: for he thinks, perhaps, that you are covetous of wealth, and at the same time have not obtained your desire. But, as I just now said, the knowledge of these matters is difficult. However, placing the arguments in common, it is proper to consider, whether the truth is on your side, or on that of Cratylus.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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