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.375 BCE], 387a)
Book Reference
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]