Plato on Conventionalism

Bibliographic Data

ID11585000
AuthorsRachel Barney (corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume42
Issue2
Pages143-162
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhronesis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8868 • E-ISSN: 1568-5284
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156852897762700070
OpenAlexW1983395021
LanguageEN
Citations received22

A new reading of Plato's account of conventionalism about names in the Cratylus. It argues that Hermogenes' position, according to which a name is whatever anybody 'sets down' as one, does not have the counterintuitive consequences usually claimed. At the same time, Plato's treatment of conventionalism needs to be related to his treatment of formally similar positions in ethics and politics. Plato is committed to standards of objective natural correctness in all such areas, despite the problematic consequences which, as he himself shows, arise in the case of language

Conventionalism · Epistemology · Ethnology · Humanities · Legitimation · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy

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