Vol. 25 No. 2 (2019)
Articles

Etymology in Plato’s Sophist

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  • David Sedley
David Sedley
University of Cambridge

Published 2019-12-29

Keywords

  • Cratylus,
  • etymology,
  • flux,
  • Plato,
  • Sophist
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Sedley, D. (2019). Etymology in Plato’s Sophist. Hyperboreus, 25(2), 290-301. https://doi.org/10.36950/OUOF9108

Abstract

The etymological method displayed at considerable length in the Cratylus is widely assumed to be intended by Plato as an object of ridicule. In my 2003 monograph Plato’s Cratylus I resisted this assumption. In the present paper I seek to strengthen my case by arguing that in Plato’s major work on philosophical logic, the Sophist, the same method is re-employed twice, at 221 a–c and 228 b–e, for entirely serious purposes.

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