Plato and the Origins of Linguistic Philosophy

Subject Areas : Epistemological researches

سیدحمید طالب زاده ¹ (دانشیار گروه فلسفه دانشگاه تهران)
مالک شجاعی جشوقانی ² (دانشجوی دکتری فلسفه معاصر دانشگاه تهران)

Received: 2015-05-22 Accepted : 2015-05-22 Published : 2012-06-21

Keywords: Etymology, Plato, Cratylus, naturism, conventionalism,

Abstract :

In comparison to existence-based and cognition-based philosophy, contemporary philosophy, especially analytical philosophy, is known as language-based philosophy.  However we can trace the origins of philosophical views on language to the early history of philosophy. The first serious philosophical reflection on language could be found in Socratic dialogues, especially in Cratylus. In this dialogue Plato, by adopting etymological approach particularly based on his own theory of forms, criticizes the two main views on language and reality, i.e. the views based on extremist naturism and extremist conventionalism. Cratylus argues that the names of things always indicate the nature of the things, Plato rejects this idea and believes that it is not a linguistic way but it goes beyond that. This way is completely different from the Wittgenstein’s proposition: “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”.

References:

-1Dalimier, C.,  Platon, Cratyle. Paris: Flammarion. , 1998

-2Sedley, D., lato's Cratylus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ,2003

-3Ross, W. D.,‘The date of Plato's Cratylus’, Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 32: 187-96. ,1955

-4Sedley, D.,‘The Etymologies in Plato's Cratylus’ ,The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 118, pp. 140-154 ,1998

6-پژوهنده ، لیلا، کلام نفسی (تکوینی) و کلام لفظی (قول، گفتار)،مجله مقالات و بررسیها ، شماره 75 (دفتر دوم)،صص90-91، بهار و تابستان 1383ش.

7- گاتری، دبلیو، کی سی ،تاریخ فلسفه یونان، افلاطون (زباشناسی محاورات انتقادی) ،ترجمه حسن فتحی ،انتشارات فکر روز ،1378ش.