Cratylus (Κρατυλος) is the name of a dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 360 BC. In the dialogue, Socrates is asked by two men, Cratylus and Hermogenes, to advise them whether names are "conventional" or "natural", that is, whether language is a system of arbitrary signs or whether words have an intrinsic relation to the things they signify. It is one of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to deal with matters of etymology and linguistics.

Plato's dialogue is named after the late fifth century BC philosopher Cratylus (of Athens). 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 one cannot even do it once. As a result of this realization, Cratylus renounced his power of speech and limited his communication to wagging his finger.

External links

• Cratylus
• Cratylus translated by Harold N. Fowler (1921)
• Cratylus translated by B. Jowett
• Essay: What was Cratylus Trying To Say?

Socratic_dialogues | Linguistics

Kratylos (dialogi)