Abstract

Modern philosophic study of names and naming focuses on issues of how it is that denotation and reference are achieved. Questions as to whether names can be correct or appropriate to their referents, are thought to fall outside the domain of philosophic inquiry; thus, the assessment of, for example, the sound symbolism suggested by the phonemes of a name, is thought to belong to non-philosophic disciplines such as onomastics and literary criticism. In this thesis, I will argue that the modern philosophic study of names excessively restricts our understanding of names and naming, and that to gain a broader, more comprehensive understanding of the nature of names, we should look to theories which Plato presents in the Cratylus. I will attempt to demonstrate that the modern philosophic perspective on naming is too narrow to provide an adequate interpretation of the Cratylus. Instead, I shall argue that a proper understanding of the theories of the correctness of names which Plato presents in the dialogue, requires readers to have not only a philosophic understanding, but also an onomastic sensitivity, to the nature of names