Language, convention and knowledge in Plato’s Cratylus

Abstract

The Cratylus is quite puzzling as to how it ends its discussion of the justification of names, asking the question of how to know things in themselves. Thus, the unveiling and clarification of the Platonic position contained in the dialogue could not but be the subject of many disputes and studies. This article is intended in particular to contradict the view that Socrates, at the end of the work, adopts the conventionalist position of names, something that is argued by Ademollo in his important commentary on dialogue. To this end, we will make a short analysis of the naturalistic and conventionalist positions contained in the discussion between Hermogenes and Cratylus, so that, later, we will be led to a reinterpretation of what we call here the “socratic way”, taking into account the various textual elements that are present.