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Single Idea 13775

[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation ]

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]

The 19 ideas from 'Cratylus'

13776 Truths say of what is that it is, falsehoods say of what is that it is not [Plato]
13772 Is the being or essence of each thing private to each person? [Plato]
13774 Things don't have every attribute, and essence isn't private, so each thing has an essence [Plato]
13775 We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato]
13777 A name is a sort of tool [Plato]
13778 A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato]
13779 The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato]
13780 Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato]
13781 Soul causes the body to live, and gives it power to breathe and to be revitalized [Plato]
13783 Even the gods love play [Plato]
13785 'Arete' signifies lack of complexity and a free-flowing soul [Plato]
13786 Wisdom is called 'beautiful', because it performs fine works [Plato]
13787 Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato]
13788 If we made a perfect duplicate of Cratylus, there would be two Cratyluses [Plato]
13789 Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato]
13790 A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it [Plato]
13791 Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge [Plato]
2063 How can beauty have identity if it changes? [Plato]
13792 There can't be any knowledge if things are constantly changing [Plato]