Names, Reference, and Correctness in Plato's Cratylus

Download or read book Names, Reference, and Correctness in Plato's Cratylus written by Michael D. Palmer and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1989 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cratylus unfolds as a confrontation between competing theses on the question of the correctness of names. Since Plato levels criticism against both theses, we are led to wonder whether Plato himself takes a position on the main issue. Dr. Palmer argues that we can discern in the Cratylus a positive statement of Plato's own views. Plato, unlike many contemporary theorists who follow Frege, does not presuppose that intensional entities such as concepts or meanings mediate the relation between a name and its nominatum. Plato believes that reality divides into discrete, natural units and that names are established, in part, to mark these non-conventional units. Plato holds (or at least assumes) that a name is correct if it successfully (and directly) picks out a real unit or entity, and if it aptly describes its nominatum.