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Single Idea 13791

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

Full Idea

If things cannot be learned except from their names, how can we possibly claim that the name-givers or rule-setters have knowledge before any names had been given for them to know?

Gist of Idea

Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge

Source

Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 438b)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.153

A Reaction

Running through this is a hostility to philosophy of language, so I find it very congenial. We are animals who relate to the world before language takes a grip. We have full-blown knowledge of things, with no intervention of words.

Related Idea

Idea 13789 Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato]

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]