Kratylos (philosopher)

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Kratylos ( Greek  Κρατύλος Kratýlos ; * probably around the middle of the 5th century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He lived in Athens and professed the teachings of the pre-Socratic Heraclitus . Plato dealt with the philosophy of kratylos.

Life

All that is known about the origin of Kratylos is that his father was probably called Smikrion. Although he lived in Athens, it is uncertain whether he was an Athenian by origin.

Kratylos was the most famous Herakliteer (follower of the teachings of Heraclitus) in ancient times. But he could not have known Heraclitus personally, as he was already around 460 BC. Had died. Kratylos had students whom he taught in "correct usage of words".

Aristotle reports that Plato “first became acquainted with Kratylos and the Heraclitic doctrines from his youth” and that he continued to do so later. Socrates assumed a different approach, which Plato followed, and that was the basis from which Plato developed his theory of ideas and the concept of methexis (participation). From these statements of Aristotle it is concluded in research that Plato's thinking, before he chose Socrates as his teacher, was strongly influenced by the ideas of Kratylos. However, it is unclear whether this took place in the context of a teacher-student relationship. A different research opinion is that Aristotle's expression “first” (proton) should not be understood in terms of time, but in the sense of a logical sequence in the structure of Plato's teaching, and therefore offers no clue for the temporal classification of the influence by Kratylos. However, this hypothesis has not prevailed. The account of the historian of philosophy Diogenes Laertios , according to which Plato only became a hearer of Kratylos after Socrates' death, is not credible.

Plato named his dialogue Kratylos after the Herakliteer. There he deals with his views. The literarily designed dialogue reproduces a fictional conversation with Kratylos, which, according to fiction, took place no later than 421 BC. Has taken place, because in the dialogue it is assumed that the father of the interlocutor Hermogenes, Hipponikos von Alopeke , who died in 421 at the latest , is still alive. At the end of the dialogue, Socrates says to Kratylos: “You are young.” At another point, Socrates, who was born in 469, indirectly indicates the considerable age difference between him and Kratylos. These clues allow an approximate dating of Kratylos' life. According to current research, it can be assumed that he was probably born in the fifth or sixth decade of the 5th century.

Teaching

Since no works by Kratylos have survived - perhaps he did not write anything - the main features of his teaching can only be inferred from the sparse information provided by Aristotle and from Plato's dialogue with Kratylos . It should be noted that the kratylos is a literary work, the author of which could take the liberty, for didactic or literary considerations, to put views of his kratylos figure in the mouth that the historical kratylos did not represent in this form. In research, the possibility has often been considered that behind the literary figure of Kratylos an unnamed historical opponent of Plato (or several) was to be found or that it was a matter of combating tendencies within Plato's academy .

Epistemology

Aristotle announced that Heraclitus' teaching had been radically developed in the circle of her followers. He mentions only Kratylos by name of these thinkers who “Heraclitise”. Kratylos said that in view of the constant change of all things perceptible to the senses, emphasized by Heraclitus, true philosophical statements were impossible. A true statement must apply regardless of time. However, each statement can (at best) only be correct in relation to the respective exact point in time. Heraclitus' saying that you cannot step into the same river twice (because the second time it is already a different one) was brought to a head by Kratylos. He found that it was not even possible to step into the same river once (since it was already changing during this action). In relation to statements, this means that what you are talking about changes while you are talking and thus devalues ​​the statement. Accordingly, Kratylos represented a radical epistemological skepticism , because he denied any possibility of an identity and thus a valid statement. Aristotle says that for this reason Kratylos finally said nothing more, just moved his finger (to point). However, this anecdote may distort Kratylos' position and behavior, it may come from an opponent or mocker. Anecdotes made up for the purpose of mockery also circulated about Heraclitus. Aristotle mentions in another connection with reference to Aeschines that Kratylos used to use non-verbal means of expression such as hand movements when speaking.

Philosophy of language

→ Main article: Kratylos
The beginning of Kratylos in the oldest surviving medieval manuscript, the Codex Clarkianus written in 895

The only source for the philosophy of language of Kratylos is Plato's Dialogue Kratylos . It is a conversation between the philosophers Socrates, Kratylos and Hermogenes, in which Kratylos' view is critically examined. Despite the objections of Socrates, Kratylos sticks to his opinion. In doing so, he refers to Heraclitus, whose position makes more sense than anything else. However, there is no proof that the historical Heraclitus represented a philosophy of language of this kind, independent of Plato's account. It is clearly recognizable that Plato, who lets Socrates argue against Kratylos, viewed the Heraclitean philosophy of language with skepticism and treated it with irony. It is possible that he does not faithfully reproduce Kratylos' view in the dialogue; It is striking that the Heraklitic river theory is brought into play not by Kratylos but by Socrates and Kratylos only joins it later. What can at least be certain is that Kratylos has dealt intensively with the question of how words are related to their meanings, and that he considered this connection to be natural. He rejected the idea that language was based on arbitrary convention.

In dialogue, the kratylos is convinced that a natural, inherently correct relationship between the words and the things they designate is given from the outset. So every word is appropriate to the object it belongs to, and all terms are correct. An apparently wrong name is actually not a, but only a meaningless sequence of tones. This should also apply to names that are assigned to individual namesake such as gods and mythical figures. What is meant are the concrete sound forms; The sound similarity of words should indicate their relatedness.

Kratylos' understanding of etymology has far-reaching epistemological consequences: If the relationship between designation and what is designated is natural, conclusions can be drawn from the designation about the nature of what is designated, and language has a high epistemological relevance. Kratylos claims that whoever knows the designations also knows things, and that this is the only way to grasp the essence of things. Plato rejects this, he does not accept words as independent means of knowledge and does not consider their sound form to be natural. However, he does not reject the idea of ​​an internal connection between designation and what is designated in principle, but only in its radical version represented by Kratylos. Reducing the designations to purely arbitrary convention does not correspond to Plato's position, but he regards the words as images of the things designated, which are more or less similar to these things.

It is unclear how Kratylos reconciled his conviction that there are inherently fixed meanings of words and absolutely correct terms, with the Heraclitic concept of a fundamental impermanence of all things and with his epistemological skepticism. Apparently he changed his view in the course of time and - as Aristotle's account indicates - later radicalized the epistemological skepticism and extended it to the designations. Perhaps he was responding to Plato's criticism of his earlier position.

reception

In the Roman Empire , Aristotle commentators mentioned the Heraclitic river theory and its Kratylos modification, handed down from Aristotle. The late antique Neo-Platonist Proclus wrote a commentary on Plato's Kratylos . There he described Kratylos as a taciturn scholar who only gave brief answers in the dialogue, and mentioned that he had been Plato's teacher.

Source collection

  • Serge N. Mouraviev (Ed.): Héraclite d'Éphèse . Part 2 A: La tradition antique et médiévale. Témoignages and citations . Volume 1: D'Épicharme à Philon d'Alexandrie (= Heraclitea II.A.1). Academia Verlag, Sankt Augustin 1999, ISBN 3-89665-090-4 , pp. 23–55 (critical edition with French translation)

literature

  • Dieter Bremer : Kratylos and the Herakliteer . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy . The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 2, Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2598-8 , p. 657-664
  • Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 503-510
  • Serge N. Mouraviev: La première théorie des noms de Cratyle . In: Mario Capasso et al. (Ed.): Studi di filosofia preplatonica . Bibliopolis, Napoli 1985, ISBN 88-7088-103-2 , pp. 159-172
  • Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics . Hackett, Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , pp. 105f.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, p. 105; Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 503-510, here: 504.
  2. ↑ Plato, Cratylus 428b.
  3. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 987a – b; see. 1078b.
  4. ↑ The dissenting opinion took Donald J. Allan: The Problem of Cratylus . In: American Journal of Philology 75, 1954, pp. 271–287, here: p. 275 Note 2. Harold Cherniss , among others, opposed this interpretation : Aristotle, Metaphysics 987 A 32 – B7 . In: American Journal of Philology 76, 1955, pp. 184-186 and Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, p. 105.
  5. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 3.6; on this Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 503-510, here: 505; Holger Thesleff : Platonic Patterns , Las Vegas 2009, p. 168, note 25.
  6. ↑ Plato, Cratylus 440d.
  7. ↑ Plato, Cratylus 429d.
  8. ↑ Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, pp. 105f. Cf. Michael Erler : Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (Hrsg.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, p. 110; Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 503-510, here: 504f.
  9. ↑ For the credibility of this information, see David Sedley: Plato's Cratylus , Cambridge 2003, pp. 16–21.
  10. ↑ Konrad Gaiser provides an overview of the hypotheses : Name und Ding in Plato's 'Kratylos' , Heidelberg 1974, p. 11f.
  11. ↑ Heraklit, fragment DK 22 B 91; on the authenticity of the fragment and on Plato's and Aristotle's understanding of the saying, see Leonardo Tarán: Heraclitus: The River-Fragments and Their Implications . In: Elenchos 20, 1999, pp. 9-52, here: 13-20, 43-52.
  12. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 1010a. Compare with Barbara Cassin: Le doigt de Cratyle . In: Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 5, 1987, pp. 139–150.
  13. ↑ Rachel Barney: Names and Nature in Plato's Cratylus , New York 2001, p. 55, note 16; Victor Goldschmidt : Essai sur le "Cratyle" , Paris 1982 (reprint of the 1940 edition), p. 33.
  14. ↑ Aristotle, rhetoric 1417b.
  15. ↑ Plato, Cratylus 440d-e.
  16. ↑ See also Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 503-510, here: 507; Serge N. Mouraviev: La première théorie des noms de Cratyle . In: Mario Capasso et al. (Ed.): Studi di filosofia preplatonica , Napoli 1985, pp. 159–172, here: 162–170.
  17. ↑ For details of the theory see Timothy MS Baxter: The Cratylus. Plato's Critique of Naming , Leiden 1992, pp. 8-15; Serge N. Mouraviev: La première théorie des noms de Cratyle . In: Mario Capasso et al. (Ed.): Studi di filosofia preplatonica , Napoli 1985, pp. 159-172.
  18. ↑ Plato, Cratylus 435d-436a. See Jetske C. Rijlaarsdam: Plato on language , Utrecht 1978, pp. 3–5.
  19. ↑ Michael Erler: Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, pp. 109–116, 477f .; Jetske C. Rijlaarsdam: Plato on Language , Utrecht 1978, pp. 9-12, 164-190; Bernard Williams : Cratylus' theory of names and its refutation . In: Malcolm Schofield, Martha C. Nussbaum (eds.): Language and Logos , Cambridge 1982, pp. 83-93 (from a modern philosophical point of view); Timothy MS Baxter: The Cratylus. Plato's Critique of Naming , Leiden 1992, pp. 164-183.
  20. ↑ David Sedley: Plato's Cratylus , Cambridge 2003, pp. 138-146.
  21. ↑ Serge Mouraviev: Cratylos (d'Athènes?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 503-510, here: 506-509. Cf. Konrad Gaiser: Name and matter in Plato's 'Kratylos' , Heidelberg 1974, pp. 13-18; David Sedley: Plato's Cratylus , Cambridge 2003, pp. 18-21.
  22. ↑ Proklos, In Platonis Cratylum 10 and 14th
personal data
SURNAME Kratylos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.