The Cratylus of Plato

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-108-45827-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 558 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 227 mm, Gewicht: 746 g

The Cratylus, one of Plato's most difficult and intriguing dialogues, explores the relations between a name and the thing it names. The questions that arise lead the characters to face a number of major issues: truth and falsehood, relativism, etymology, the possibility of a perfect language, the relation between the investigation of names and that of reality, the Heraclitean flux theory and the Theory of Forms. This full-scale commentary on the Cratylus offers a definitive interpretation of the dialogue. It contains translations of the passages discussed and a line-by-line analysis which deals with textual matters and unravels Plato's dense and subtle arguments, reaching a novel interpretation of some of the dialogue's main themes as well as of many individual passages. The book is intended primarily for graduate students and scholars, both philosophers and classicists, but presupposes no previous acquaintance with the subject and is accessible to undergraduates.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ademollo, Francesco

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. Cratylus' naturalism (383a–384c); 2. Hermogenes' conventionalism (383a–384c); 3. Naturalism defended (386e–390e); 4. Naturalism unfolded (390e–394e); 5. Naturalism illustrated: the etymologies of 'secondary' names (394e–421c); 6. Naturalism illustrated: the primary names (421c–427c); 7. Naturalism discussed (427e–433c); 8. Naturalism refuted and conventionalism defended (433b–439b); 9. Flux and forms (439b–440e); Appendix 1. The text of 437d10–438b8; Appendix 2. Some interpolations and non-mechanical errors.

Über Autor(innen)

Ademollo, Francesco
Francesco Ademollo studied classics at the University of Florence and has held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Florence and at the Scuola Normale Superiore. He currently teaches Greek and Latin at the Liceo Classico Galileo in Florence.