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Single Idea 13790

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / a. Names ]

Full Idea

The name-giver might have made a mistake at the beginning and then forced the other names to be consistent with it.

Gist of Idea

A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it

Source

Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 436c)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.152

A Reaction

Lovely. This is Gareth Evans's 'Madagascar' example. See Idea 9041.

Related Idea

Idea 9041 The Causal Theory of Names is wrong, since the name 'Madagascar' actually changed denotation [Evans]

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]