Cratylus by Plato 1.0


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Cratylus
by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

"Cratylus (ancient Greek: Kratylos) was an ancient Athenian philosopher from late 5th century BC, mostly known through his portrayal in Plato's dialogue Cratylus. Little is known of Cratylus or his mentor Heraclitus (of Ephesus, Asia Minor). According to Cratylus at 402a, Heraclitus proclaimed that one cannot step twice into the same stream. According to Aristotle (Metaphysics, 4.5 1010a10-15), his disciple Cratylus went a step further to proclaim that it cannot even be done once. Such was his thorough-going skepticism.

If the world was in such constant flux that streams could change instantaneously, then so could words. Thus, Cratylus found communication to be impossible. As a result of this realization, Cratylus renounced his power of speech and limited his communication to moving his finger. He was an advocate of the idea that language is natural rather than conventional. The little known philosophy of Cratylism is based on "reconstituted" teachings, owing mostly to Cratylus's and Heraclitus's inclusion in the Dialogues of Plato."

About the Author

"Plato ("wide, broad-browed") (428/427 BC - 348/347 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks, succeeding Socrates and preceding Aristotle, who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates, and to have been as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.

Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Interestingly, although there is little question that Plato lectured at the Academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. The dialogues have since Plato's time been used to teach a range of subjects, mostly including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote."
Cratylus by Plato



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