L’EREDITÀ DI PARMENIDE NEL CRATILO DI PLATONE

Abstract

Parmenides' thought concerning the language and particularly on names represented a break within the tradition. This innovative position seems to have left a precise sign on the Cratylus, a dialogue that Plato dedicated on the reflection of names' value towards the knowledge. The discussion of Socrates and his speakers, Hermogenes and Cratylus, refers to some specific aspects of the Parmenides' poem: the difficult relationship between names and becoming, the deceptive multitude of names and at the end, more clearly, the falsehood of naming related to not-being. Not only. Even the reconstruction of Hermogenes' profile, according to Diogenes Laertius, leads to Parmenides. In the Cratylus all these elements seem to offer to the topic of the correctness of names a deeper perspective where all final Socrates' doubts on the knowledge by names have more support.