Full Idea
Maybe the primary elements of which things are composed are not susceptible to rational accounts. Each of them taken by itself can only be named, but nothing further can be said about it.
Gist of Idea
Maybe primary elements can be named, but not receive a rational account
Source
Plato (Theaetetus [c.364 BCE], 201e)
Book Reference
Plato: 'Theaetetus', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [Penguin 1987], p.116
A Reaction
This still seems to be more or less the central issue in philosophy - which things should be treated as 'primitive', and which other things are analysed and explained using the primitive tools?