a commentary in SearchWorks catalog (2024)

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Author/Creator

Ademollo, Francesco, 1973-

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Machine generated contents note: I.1. Subject and structure of the dialogue
• I.1.1. The correctness of names
• I.1.2. A map
• I.1.3. Making sense of etymology
• I.2. The characters
• I.2.1. Cratylus
• I.2.2. Hermogenes
• I.3. The date
• I.3.1. The dramatic date
• I.3.2. The relative date
• I.4. The evidence for the text
• 1.1. The thesis
• 1.1.1. First approach to the thesis (383ab)
• 1.1.2. More details: Hermogenes' name (383b-384c)
• 1.1.3. The origin of natural names
• 1.2. Before Cratylus
• 2.1. Convention and individual decision (384c-385b)
• 2.1.1. First statement (380e)
• 2.1.2. Public and private names (385ab)
• 2.2. Truth and falsehood in sentences and names (385bd)
• 2.2.1. True and false sentences (385b)
• 2.2.2. The parts of a sentence. True and false names (385cd)
• 2.2.3. Truth values and sentence structure
• 2.2.4. The passage's function in context
• 2.2.5. Authenticity and position of the passage.

• 2.2.6. Proclus' testimony
• 2.3. Convention and individual decision: further details (385de)
• 2.4. Hermogenes and Protagoras (385e-386e)
• 2.4.1. Man the measure of all things? (385e-386a)
• 2.4.2. The refutation of Protagoras [--] and of Euthydemus (386ad)
• 2.4.3. Conclusion: objects have a stable being (386de)
• 2.5. Before Hermogenes
• 2.5.1. Empedoclean and Thucydidean 'conventionalism'
• 2.5.2. De natura hominis and Democritus
• 3.1. First argument: the naturalness of actions (386e-387d)
• 3.1.1. The naturalness of actions. Cutting and burning (386e-387b)
• 3.1.2. Speaking (387bc)
• 3.1.3. Naming (387cd)
• 3.2. Second argument: the function of names (387d-388c)
• 3.2.1. Names as instruments (387d-388c)
• 3.2.2. Aristotle on names as instruments
• 3.3. Third argument: enter the namegiver (388c-389a)
• 3.3.1. The use and the making of instruments (388cd)
• 3.3.2. The lawgiver as name-maker (388d-389a)
• 3.3.3. Who is the lawgiver?
• 3.4. Fourth argument: instruments, names and forms (389a-390e).

• 3.4.1. Instruments and forms (382a)
• 3.4.2. Generic and specific forms of tools (389bd)
• 3.4.3. Forms of name (389d-390a)
• 3.4.4. The lawgiver and the dialectician (390bd)
• 3.5. Conclusion (390de)
• 4.1. Searching for a theory (390e-392b)
• 4.2. The theory discovered. Naturalism and synonymy (392b-394e)
• 4.2.1. 'Scamandrius' and Astyanax' (392bd)
• 4.2.2. Astyanax' and 'Hector' (392d-393b). The argument previewed
• 4.2.3. A lion begets a lion [--] and a king a king (393bd)
• 4.2.4. The relative irrelevance of letters and syllables (323de)
• 4.2.5. Synonymical Generation runs wild. The power' of names (324ab)
• 4.2.6. 'Hector' and Astyanax' again (394be)
• 4.3. Conclusion (394e-396c)
• 5.1. The arrangement of the etymologies
• 5.1.1. Analysis of 350-421c
• 5.1.2. The systematic character of the etymologies
• 5.1.3. Platonic views in the etymologies (396bc, 399bc, 400ab, 403a-404b, 410b)
• 5.2. The etymologies and the argument of the Cratylus
• 5.2.1. Ordinary proper names put aside (397ab).

• 5.2.2. The etymologies as doxography, or the suicide of naturalism (400d-401a)
• 5.2.3. The etymology as doxography (continued): the theory of flux (401d, 402a, 411bc)
• 5.3. More on the theory of flux
• 5.3.1. Locomotion
• 5.3.2. The Penetrating Principle (412-413d)
• 5.3.3. Further evidence about the atomists in the Cratylus (412b, 414a, 420d)
• 5.3.4. Atomism in the Theaetetus
• 5.3.5. The Penetrating Principle again (413e-414a, 417bc, 418a-419b)
• 5.3.6. Flux and relativity?
• 5.4. Meaning in the etymologies
• 5.5. Plato's attitude to the etymologies
• 5.5.1. Seriousness in the etymologies (414c-439bc)
• 5.5.2. The inspiration of Euthyphro (396c-397a)
• 5.5.3. Humour and detachment in the etymologies (398de, 399a, 406bc)
• 5.5.4. The etymologies' epistemological status
• 6.1. From secondary to primary names (421c-422c)
• 6.1.1. The postulation of primary names (421c-422c)
• 6.1.2. Intermezzo: the meaning of r3iiiia (399db, 421b, e)
• 6.2. The correctness of primary names (422c-424a).

• 6.2.1. Introduction (422ce)
• 6.2.2. Indication by gestural mimesis (422e-423b)
• 6.2.3. Indication by vocal mimesis (423bc)
• 6.2.4. Vocal imitation of the essence (423c-424a)
• 6.3. The imposition of primary names (424a-425b)
• 6.3.1. The etymologies of primary names: false start (424ab)
• 6.3.2. Division of letters (424bc)
• 6.3.3. Division of beings (424d)
• 6.3.4. Matching letters and beings (424d-425a)
• 6.3.5. Intermezzo: names, verbs and speech (425a)
• 6.3.6. First assessment of Socrates' programme
• 6.3.7. How names are and how they should be (425ab)
• 6.4. The investigation of actual primary names (425b-427d)
• 6.4.1. Disclaimers and preliminaries (425b-426b)
• 6.4.2. Letters and primary names: the examples (426c-427c)
• 6.4.3. Conclusion of Socrates' survey (427cd)
• 6.4.4. An assessment of the mimetic survey
• 6.4.5. The discussion with Hermogenes concluded (427de)
• 7.1. Introduction (427e-429c)
• 7.1.1. Preliminary exchanges (427e-428e)
• 7.1.2. Better and worse names? (428e-429b).

• 7.1.3. Hermogenes' name, again (429bc)
• 7.2. Naturalism and falsehood (429c-431c)
• 7.2.1. Naturalism and the impossibility of false speaking (429cd)
• 7.2.2. Cratylus against false speaking (429d)
• 7.2.3. Cratylus against false speaking, continued
• 7.2.4. Socrates' defence of false speaking (430a-431c)
• 7.2.5. Conclusion
• 7.3. Naturalism and imperfect resemblance (431c-433b)
• 7.3.1. First round (431ce)
• 7.3.2. Second round: Cratylus' argument from spelling (431e-432a)
• 7.3.3. Second round: Socrates' reply and the Two Cratyluses' (432ad)
• 7.3.4. Conclusions on fine and bad names (432d-433b)
• 8.1. Resemblance and convention in names (433b-435d)
• 8.1.1. Preliminaries (433b-434b)
• 8.1.2. The sklerotes argument: conflicting letters in the same name (434bd)
• 8.1.3. The sklerotes argument: understanding, indication, correctness (434e-435b)
• 8.1.4. Convention 'contributes' to correctness (435bc)
• 8.1.5. Conclusions on resemblance and convention in names (435cd)
• 8.1.6. Convention elsewhere in the Platonic corpus.

• 8.1.7. The ancient commentators
• 8.2. Names and knowledge (435d-439b)
• 8.2.1. Cratylus' view that names 'teach' (435d-436a)
• 8.2.2. Names might express false beliefs (436a-437d)
• 8.2.3. Names and the namegiver's knowledge (437d-438d)
• 8.2.4. Knowledge 'without names' (438d-430)
• 9.1. The arguments (439b-440d)
• 9.1.1. The lawgivers in a whirl (439bc)
• 9.1.2. Flux and forms: the arguments previewed
• 9.1.3. Enter the forms, exeunt particulars (439cd)
• 9.1.4. The first argument (439d)
• 9.1.5. The first argument and the Theaetetus
• 9.1.6. The second argument (439e)
• 9.1.7. The third argument (439e-440a)
• 9.1.8. The fourth argument (44oab)
• 9.1.9. Flux rejected? (44obc)
• 9.1.10. Conclusion (44ocd)
• 9.2. Epilogue (44ode).

Publisher's summary

The Cratylus, one of Plato's most difficult and intriguing dialogues, explores the relations between a name and the thing it names. The questions that arise lead the characters to face a number of major issues: truth and falsehood, relativism, etymology, the possibility of a perfect language, the relation between the investigation of names and that of reality, the Heracl*tean flux theory and the Theory of Forms. This full-scale commentary on the Cratylus offers a definitive interpretation of the dialogue. It contains translations of the passages discussed and a line-by-line analysis which deals with textual matters and unravels Plato's dense and subtle arguments, reaching a novel interpretation of some of the dialogue's main themes as well as of many individual passages. The book is intended primarily for graduate students and scholars, in both philosophy and classics, but presupposes no previous acquaintance with the subject and is accessible to undergraduates.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Subjects

Plato. Cratylus.

Cratylus (Plato)

Language and languages > Philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY > >

Publication date

2011

ISBN

9781139190282 (electronic bk.)

1139190288 (electronic bk.)

9780511779022 (electronic bk.)

051177902X (electronic bk.)

9781139187695

1139187694

1283378442

9781283378444

1139179381

9781139179386

1107217075

9781107217072

1139188976

9781139188975

9786613378446

6613378445

1139183060

9781139183062

1139185381

9781139185387

9780521763479

0521763479