Lectures Du Cratyle, 1960–1990
Summary This study constitutes an attempt to come to grips with the vast scholarly production of the past thirty or so years concerning Plato’s Cratylus. It is noted that the analyses of this text either diverge from or complete each other, depending on whether the commentators subscribe to a dialectic and philosophical or a linguistic and language-oriented interpretation. It is maintained that it is the status accorded by Plato to language in this dialogue that is at the centre of the discussion. The contemporary debate deals with the role of the alphabet in the text, particular levels of analysis (etymology, relative motivation, onomatopoetics), the origin and development of language, and the clash between two theses: conventionalism vs naturalism. It is shown that the valuation of ‘Cratylism’, especially in the form currently found in French scholarship (e.g., Genette), extends an old tradition which tends to retain nothing but attempts at etymological or phonic interpretation. In fact, important developments according to which Socrates supports the conventionalist thesis and notes the impossibility to prove the ‘appropriateness of names’ deserve to receive their full significance.