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Full Idea
If we undertake to cut something and make the cut in whatever way we choose and with whatever tool we choose, we will not succeed. If we cut according to the nature of cutting and being cut, and with the natural tool, we'll succeed and cut correctly.
Gist of Idea
We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly
Source
Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 387a)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.104
A Reaction
I take this passage to be the creed for realists about the physical world - a commitment not merely to the existence of an external world, but to the existence of facts about it, which we may or may not be able to discover.
Related Ideas
Idea 7953 Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato]
Idea 13777 A name is a sort of tool [Plato]
Idea 3123 Science is in the business of carving nature at the joints [Segal]
| 13775 | We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato] |
| 16121 | I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things [Plato] |
| 13435 | We can't categorise things by their real essences, because these are unknown [Locke] |
| 12535 | If we discovered real essences, we would still categorise things by the external appearance [Locke] |
| 6160 | Does Kant say the mind imposes categories, or that it restricts us to them? [Rowlands on Kant] |
| 22649 | Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose [James] |
| 4048 | Infant brains appear to have inbuilt ontological categories [Goldman] |
| 8986 | We should abandon classifying by pigeon-holes, and classify around paradigms [Sainsbury] |
| 17376 | We should aim for a classification which tells us as much as possible about the object [Dupré] |
| 4913 | Brain lesions can erase whole categories of perception, suggesting they are hard-wired [Carter,R] |
| 15682 | Even fairly simple animals make judgements based on categories [Gelman] |
| 15691 | Children accept real stable categories, with nonobvious potential that gives causal explanations [Gelman] |
| 13131 | The aim is that everything should belong in some ontological category or other [Westerhoff] |
| 10494 | Several words may label a category; one word can name several categories; some categories lack words [Ellen] |
| 18573 | For each category of objects (such as 'dog') an individual seems to have several concepts [Machery] |
| 18602 | A thing is classified if its features are likely to be generated by that category's causal laws [Machery] |
| 18604 | Are quick and slow categorisation the same process, or quite different? [Machery] |