Plato's Cratylus

So this is a very important piece of work in understanding Plato's view on language, it doesn't fully explain it but it is important in its discussion of naming. Socrates and Hermogenes spend much of their time in this dialogue breaking down names of People, Gods, and things (like fire, justice) which brings them to the conclusion that their must be secondary names and primary names. I wasn't quite sure if Socrates had really come to a conclusion about what is primary because they both seemed to agree that it could be possible to use a single letter to indicate one particular thing. Also they decide that there must be a name-bearer or a Legislator who originally created these names. From this discussion we see in the end of Cratylus that because the Legislator gives names he must have prior knowledge to them therefore the truth is God gave language. Therefore we must know things without words.

What they definitely conclude though is that a name is a representation of a thing, but moreso like an image not a direct representation. We find in his dialogue with Cratylus that if it was a direct representation "then how ridiculous would be the effect of names on things, if they were exactly the same with them! For they would be the doubles of them, and no one would be able to determine which were the names of which were the realities." (Cratylus 221) What is so interesting about this discussion of names to me is that it sounds so similar to Bertrand Russell and his theory of descriptions in that a name is not just a signifier but it is a description in disguise and this is what he uses to explain how we can talk of non-existent things (such as Unicorns or a bald King of France). Obviously the difference lies in that Plato doesn't take this more descriptive route, but we can see elements of it, for example in his explanation of Athene, "the author of it wished to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence, and therefore gave her the name; which however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athene." (Cratylus 196).