Plato's Cratylus / David Sedley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sedley, D. N.

Series:

Cambridge studies in the dialogues of Plato

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato. Cratylus.

Plato.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

xi, 190 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Plato's Cratylus is a brilliant but enigmatic dialogue. It bears on a topic, the relation of language to knowledge, which has never ceased to be of central philosophical importance, but tackles it in ways which at times look alien to us. In this radical reappraisal of the dialogue, Professor Sedley argues that the etymologies which take up well over half of it are not an embarrassing lapse or semi-private joke on Plato's part. On the contrary, if taken seriously as they should be, they are the key to understanding both the dialogue itself and Plato's linguistic philosophy more broadly. The book's main argument is so formulated as to be intelligible to readers with no knowledge of Greek, and will have a significant impact both on the study of Plato and on the history of linguistic thought.

Contents:

1 Plato and the dialogue 1

2 An outline 3

3 Date 6

4 Late features 14

5 Cratylus 16

6 Plato's name 21

7 Cratylus' etymological legacy 23

2 Plato the etymologist 25

1 Etymology in the Philebus 25

2 Taking etymology seriously 28

3 The anthropological basis 30

4 The skill of decoding 34

5 Eudaimonia 38

6 Not a joke 39

7 Etymology as an expertise 41

3 Linguistic science 51

1 Conventionalism 51

2 Against Protagoras 54

3 Names as instruments of instruction 59

4 The dialectical function of names 62

5 The variable quality of names 64

6 The function of a name 65

7 Linguistic lawmaking 66

4 Etymology at work 75

1 Tradition and innovation 75

2 Degrees of correctness 78

3 Some principles of codification 80

4 A Platonic semantics 81

5 The limitations of personal names 86

6 Cosmological etymologies 89

7 Cosmic intelligence 90

8 Soul and body 96

9 Interim conclusion 97

5 The dominance of flux 99

1 Flux and being 99

2 Plato and flux 101

3 Flux etymologies 103

4 Dizziness over values 108

5 Flux and relativity 109

6 The ethical agenda 113

7 Change as a force for the good 114

8 Understanding as tracking change 119

9 The instability of values 121

10 Motion and rest 122

11 Retrospect 122

6 The limits of etymology 123

2 Halting the regress 123

3 The taxonomy of sounds 128

4 Cratylus and falsity 131

5 Interim findings 138

6 The need for convention 138

7 Breaking the deadlock 143

8 Resemblance vindicated 145

7 A Platonic outcome 147

1 The principles of etymology 147

2 Moral semantics 151

3 Words and things 153

4 Personal and foreign names 154

5 The philosophical curriculum 156

6 No knowledge through names 159

7 Names and descriptions 162

8 Forms and flux 164

9 The parting of ways 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-178) and indexes.

ISBN:

0521584922

OCLC:

51900457

Online:

Publisher description