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Abstract

Plato’s Cratylus is a dialogue on language involving Cratylus, Hermogenes, and Socrates. The issue at hand involves the correctness and truth in names and whether modification of names changes their meaning. This paper reflects on how the Cratylus presents Socrates’s argument and then goes on to suggest that Plato’s description of Socrates’s use of myth suggests that he was subtly pointing out the human-like quality of gods and the godlike qualities of man. For Plato all of this is framed and informed by the discussion of truth in naming.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13177

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