Abstract

The three stated goals of this book are to provide an interpretation of the Cratylus which determines the roles Hermogenes and Cratylus play in the argument; to do justice to the dialogue's etymologies; and to assess the value of its aporetic conclusions. Baxter succeeds in presenting the dialogue, with its seemingly divergent parts, as a well-constructed whole. Baxter's interpretation enables the reader to raise the same kind of interpretive, philosophical questions that arise when one reads Plato's more accessible dialogues.