Cratylus

Cratylus, dialogue by Plato on the origin of language, written c.384 BC. Cratylus was a philosopher of the school of Heracleitus and a friend, or teacher, of Plato. According to the views expressed in the dialogue by Cratylus and Socrates, all words in all languages are by nature appropriate to the things they describe, being imitations of them, but in language there are also elements of chance, of design, and of convention. Cratylus is represented as accepting Socrates' fanciful etymologies.

(5th c. BC) Greek philosopher, sometimes thought to have been a teacher of Plato before Socrates. He is famous for capping the doctrine of Heraclitus that you cannot step into the same river twice by adding that you cannot step into the same river once: the river is changing and gone even as a single event of stepping occurs. The point is that reality is utterly particular (one individual event, one moment of time, one individual thing after another). Any adequate thought would have to match the flux with change of its own, so any attempt to categorize reality is like trying to cage the winds. He is also represented in Plato's dialogue Cratylus as holding a doctrine of the ‘right name’ of things, although the proper conclusion of his views was that the flux cannot be captured in words. According to Aristotle (Metaphysics Γ, iv. 1010) he eventually held that since ‘regarding that which everywhere in every respect is changing nothing could truly be affirmed’, the right course is just to stay silent and wag one's finger. Plato's theory of forms can be seen in part as a reaction against the impasse to which Cratylus was driven.

Cratylus (ancient Greek: Κρατύλος, Kratylos) was an ancient Athenian philosopher from late 5th century BC, mostly known through his portrayal in Plato's dialogue Cratylus. Little is known of Cratylus or his mentor Heraclitus (of Ephesus, Asia Minor). According to Cratylus at 402a, Heraclitus proclaimed that one cannot step twice into the same stream. According to Aristotle (Metaphysics, 4.5 1010a10-15), his disciple Cratylus went a step further to proclaim that it cannot even be done once. Such was his thorough-going skepticism.

If the world was in such constant flux that streams could change instantaneously, then so could words. Thus, Cratylus found communication to be impossible. As a result of this realization, Cratylus renounced his power of speech and limited his communication to moving his finger. He was an advocate of the idea that language is natural rather than conventional. The little known philosophy of Cratylism is based on "reconstituted" teachings, owing mostly to Cratylus's and Heraclitus's inclusion in the Dialogues of Plato.

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