Cratylus

Platon'un Kratylos'u, dil felsefesinin başlangıç noktası, dilbilimin kaçınılmaz başvuru kaynağı, dille ilgili kafamızı kurcalayan onlarca sorunun ilk defa telaffuz edildiği metindir. Platon'un dil kullanımı Kratylos'un labirentlerinde rafine edilirken, aslında Klasik Atina'nın entelektüel çevrelerindeki en popüler tartışmalarından biri gözler önüne serilmektedir: Adların Doğruluğu. Kratylos, dilin bilimsel, felsefi, dinsel yönlerini sorgulayan bir dizi hâlâ cevapsız soruyla gündemdeki yerini korumaktadır. Bunlardan sadece birkaçı söyle sıralanabilir: Bir adı doğru yapan nedir? Adların bir doğruluğu varsa bu doğruluk uylaşımsal mıdır yoksa doğal mıdır? Söz konusu doğruluğun üzerinde yükseldiği zemin nedir, anlam mı, yoksa sözcüklerin kendileri mi? Kullandığımız dilin iletişimde sağladığı ortaklıktan nasıl emin olabiliriz?
Platon'un Kratylos'u Türkçede okuyucunun karşısına ilk defa çıkmıyor. Ancak elinizdeki kitapta yer alan çeviri Yunanca orijinal metnin titiz bir incelenmesinin, satır satır, kimileyin hece hece, hatta harf harf, kılı kırk yaran bir filolojik bir dakikliğin ürünü olduğu iddiasını taşımaktadır. Çünkü bu çalışma, diyalogda başvurulan deneysel dil cambazlıklarında ya da etimolojik sözcük oyunlarındaki zeka parıltısını kaybetmemeye çalışan bir çeviri pratiğiyle ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu zeka pırıltısı bir yandan okurun gözlerini kamaştırırken, öte yandan dilin, dilbilimin, dil felsefesinin karanlık dehlizlerini aydınlatmaktadır. Kratylos'un sunduğu sorunsal alan, Kratylos’a Yorumlar: Physis-Nomos Karşıtlığı Bağlamında Filolojik ve Yorumbilimsel Bir İnceleme başlıklı ikinci ciltteki yorumlarla bir nebze daha net bir görünüme kavuşmaktadır.

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This is a comparison of Agathon’s role in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae and Plato’s Symposium. Firstly, I examine the Platonic version, and the unique, idiosyncratic part Plato gives Agathon to play, as a host to all, and a hostage to Socrates. Secondly, I discuss his interaction with Inlaw, the ordinary Athenian, in Aristophanes’ play. Such parallel reading allows us not only to refine our outlook on the dramatic construction both of the “talking party” and of the comic performance, but also to capture how really poikilos, for better or worse, that urban love could be. Finally, I analyze the significance of this juxtaposition, as an intertext. Plato, I argue, produces a proper palinode of Agathon, as an erotikos and a mimetic poet. By taking seriously the face-to-face between Agathon and Agathon, two dissonant and yet compatible variations on one man, our picture of Athenian erotic culture emerges sharper, and in greater detail. 
Key words:
Eros, sensuality, praise, blame, softness, manliness, effeminacy, body, language.

Edited and Translated by Brian Duvick 52. The assimilative activity of the demiurgic Intellect is twofold (389a): there is the one with which the Intellect, looking to the intelligible model, institutes the whole cosmos; and the other with which it assigns names proper to each object. Timaeus gave a brief exposition of these matters (36c), but the theurgists and the utterances from the gods themselves teach us more distinctly:1 But the holy name even with unresting whirl leapt into the stellar sphere because of the rushing command of the Father (Or.Chald.87), and another oracle says, The paternal Intellect sowed symbols in the cosmos, By which it contemplates the intelligible things and is made one with ineffable Beauty (Or.Chald.108).2 The lawgiver too, as he looks to the whole cosmos, both transmits the best polity and puts the names that resemble real beings. 1 Proclus generally uses the Chaldaean oracles in support of his own theories or those handed down to him mainly by Syrianus. Proclus himself was initiated into the Chaldaean mysteries, studied the oracles under Syrianus and wrote a commentary of his own on them, which is now lost (Marinus, Proclus sive de Felic., 28, 26). 2 This passage describes the process of assimilative reversion to principles. Procession and reversion are the primary activities of the second and third hypostasis in any given hyparxis. Any real existent thus remains eternally stable, proceeds into the order subsequent to it and reverts back to its principle. See In Crat.16, note 34 and Gersh, A Study of Spiritual Motion, 30-8.

Pour ne pas abandonner a une pure equivocite la polysemie du terme grec “Sophia”, lequel va de la simple sagacite du dechiffreur d'enigmes a la science universelle parce que premiere, nous proposons de relire les textes fondateurs de la philosophie a la lumiere d'une methode nouvelle: le comparatisme indo-europeen, methode qui a deja prouve ses vertus systematisantes en grammaire et en mythologie. L'Inde, ayant elle aussi valorisee la parole vraie comme une figure de l'excellence spirituelle supreme, occupe dans cette comparaison une place privilegiee. La fameuse " theorie des idees " de Platon, veritable cœur de la sagesse grecque, se revele ainsi deductible de la difference archaique entre noms de la langue des dieux et noms de la langue des hommes, difference instituee notamment par les poetes vediques et presente dans la plupart des cultures indo-europeennes. Alors s'estompe l'antagonisme entre les champions de la parole que sont les sophistes e...

The concept of grammatical gender, like gender itself, could set the stage for comic reversal in the ancient world, especially in authors such as Aristophanes and Sextus Empiricus. But for Philo, the conflict between natural  and grammatical gender was no laughing matter. Although he was not the first to probe the boundaries of grammatical gender, he did pursue it to its limits and perhaps beyond, particularly in his comments on Sophia (Wisdom).

Neredeyse bin yıllık bir geleneğin, Platon'un Akademeia'sındaki halefler silsilesinin son halkalarından biridir Proklos. Onun hayatını yazan Marinos'un aktardığı kadarıyla, ilk defa Atina’ya gelen Proklos, felsefenin koruyucusu olan tanrıça Athena’nın evi olan Akropolis’i ziyaret ettiğinde, kapıdaki muhafız “Hakikaten, sen gelmeseydin, ben burayı kilitleyecektim” der. Kendisi MS 412'de İstanbul'da doğmuş, Lykia'da büyümüş, Atina'da Platon'un makamına oturmuştur. Onun Platon'un diyaloglarına yazdığı yorumları, sadece Platoncu geleneğin değil, bu geleneğe dolaylı ya da dolaysız bir şekilde sızan bütün bilgi birikiminin de göz kamaştırıcı bir görünümünü sunar.

Elinizdeki kitap Platon’un Kratylos’una yönelik bilinen ve günümüze ulaşan tek yorum olmasıyla ayrı bir önem taşımaktadır. Kratylos'ta karşımıza çıkan ad(landırmay)a dair kökensel sorular, Platon’un “Kraytlos”una Yorum'da Proklos'un ontoteolojisinin kapısını açan anahtarlara dönüşürler. Kratylos'ta Sokrates'in hakkında oldukça çekinceli konuştuğu tanrı adları, Proklos'un sınır tanımayan yorum pratiğinde evrenin sırrını ifşa eden birer işaret fişeği haline gelirler.

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Felsefe Serisi 36

Per descrivere il carattere imitativo del linguaggio naturale, altresì noto come fonosimbolismo, alcuni autori ricorrono all’analogia con la pittura. Questa similitudine è molto antica e suggestiva, ma si presta a fraintendimenti ed errori, già in Platone ma anche da parte di Von Humboldt, mentre soltanto Aristotele sembra aver colto la differenza tra l'aspetto grafico e l'aspetto cromatico, mettendoli rispettivamente in relazione con il carattere imitativo naturale e l'uso convenzionale.

Three different schools of reading Plato's Cratylus compared and evaluated. The author notes the limits of the 'depurative' reading and takes issue with the 'esoteric' reading, both of which do not grasp the mastery of Plato's use of the written word. He argues that Zupi's mystagogical reading is the most convincing and coherent approach to Plato's text, and the only one that opens up speculative vistas clearly intended by the structure of Plato's language.

Through a study of nature and paternal power, this paper sheds light on the neglected theme of the relation between language and justice in Plato's Cratylus. The dialogue inquires after the correctness of names, and it turns out that no lineage leads us back to a natural ground of names. Every lineage breaks; nature is always disrupted by the monstrous. It does not follow, however, that names are mere conventions without significance: on the contrary, naming is best understood as a prayer to and for the just. The Cratylus reveals the insufficiency of language not to lead us to despair but to call us to the humility and the hope in which we must pray for justice.

This paper offers arguments against Francesco Ademollo’s redundancy thesis about the notion of the correctness of names in the Cratylus. The paper distinguishes between two versions of the redundancy thesis and provides arguments against each of them. In addition to supporting the rejection of both versions of the redundancy thesis, the arguments provide new interpretations of important issues inside and outside of the Cratylus. These issues include the philological evidence from the Classical period (e.g. Nicomachean Ethics, VI.9, 1142b6–12, on euboulia as a kind of correctness), the view of correctness expressed by Plato’s Socrates in other dialogues, and Socrates’ initial discussion with Cratylus (in particular 428e–429b).

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The Cratylus is a paradoxical text. It is both playful and deeply serious. The delicate charm of surrendering to the logic of rival theories is combined in its pages, with the full awareness that this sharp game will highlight its insurmountable difficulties. As a result, the Platonic philosophy will be strengthened, having shown that its way of understanding the truth as an expression of the real is not threatened. The background of the work also allows us to glimpse the complex web of incompatible positions embodied not only by traditional rivals who reject this notion of truth (Sophists, classical poets, orators) but also by close thinkers of Socratic roots. Far from being a work of abstruse etymological technicism or a study limited to questions about the origin of language, the Cratylus is a testimony to the theoretical effervescence that rages on the ground on which Plato's thought is based. Thinking language is inevitable, as it carries the truth that redeems us and the error that plunges us into ruin. 
The work has an introduction that studies central exegetical problems and proposes a line of reading concerning the implicit presence of Antisthenes as a polemic and muted interlocutor that embodies a naturalism that collides theoretically with The Theory of Ideas.

El *Crátilo* es un texto paradójico. Es lúdico y a la vez profundamente serio. En sus páginas se conjuga el encanto delicuescente de entregarse a la lógica de las teorías rivales, con la plena conciencia de que ese filoso juego pondrá de relieve sus insalvables dificultades. Como resultado, la filosofía platónica saldrá fortalecida, habiendo mostrado que su manera de entender la verdad como expresión de lo real no está amenazada. El trasfondo de la obra permite, además, atisbar la compleja trama de posiciones incompatibles encarnadas no sólo por los rivales tradicionales que rechazan esta noción de verdad (sofistas, poetas tradicionales, oradores), sino también por pensadores cercanos de raigambre socrática. Lejos de ser una obra de abstruso tecnicismo etimológico o un estudio limitado a cuestiones sobre origen del lenguaje, el Crátilo es testimonio de la efervescencia teórica que bulle en el terreno sobre el que se asienta el pensamiento de Platón, donde pensar el lenguaje es inevitable, en tanto es portador de la verdad que nos redime y el error que nos precipita a la ruina. 
La obra cuenta con una introducción en la que se relevan problemas exegéticos centrales y se plantea una línea de lectura en relación con la presencia implícita de Antístenes como interlocutor polémico y silenciado que encarna un naturalismo que colisiona teóricamente con la Teoría de las Ideas.

Platon'un Kratylos'u, dil felsefesinin başlangıç noktası, dilbilimin kaçınılmaz başvuru kaynağı, dille ilgili kafamızı kurcalayan onlarca sorunun ilk defa telaffuz edildiği metindir. Platon'un Kratylos'u, dahiyane, ancak bir o kadar da bilmecemsi bir diyalogdur. Metindeki etimolojik araştırmanın sıradüzeninden, açıklamaların arkasındaki niyetin ciddiyetine, Sokrates'in tartışmada hangi safı tuttuğundan, Platon'un kasten gizlenen gerçek fikirlerine, sırlarla dolu bir atmosfer Kratylos'un satırlarında bile isteye oluşturulmuş gibidir. Bu sır perdesini kaldırmaya çalışan okuyucu ya da çevirmen her seferinde yeniden dilin içine davet edildiğini fark etmekten kendisini alamaz. Kratylos belki tam da, dile yönelik soruların cevaplarının ancak dilin içinde aranabileceğinin çıkmazına giden bir yol olarak tasarlanmıştır.

Bu yolda yürüyen yorumcu filolojinin en küçük ayrıntıları gözden kaçırmayan bakışından yararlanırken, metnin kültürel ve felsefi bağlamına da nüfuz etmek zorunda kalır. Elinizdeki inceleme böyle iki yönlü bir yöntemsel yaklaşımla Klasik Atina'da doğa-yasa (physis-nomos) arasındaki gerilimin dilsel boyutlarını açığa çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır. Zira Yunan dilindeki fonetik bir sorunu, maddi kültüre dair bir ayrıntıyı, Yunan alfabesinin tarihsel gelişimini ya da deyimsel bir ifadenin dayandığı toplumsal belleği araştırırken yorumcu her seferinde felsefenin ayakkabılarıyla dil yolunda yürüdüğünün bilincine varır. Dil yolunda ve okuru da dil yoluna davet ederek...

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ISBN: 978-975-995-701-8
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Felsefe Serisi 35

The notion of infinity has been applied to very varied fields of study throughout the History of Greek Philosophy. Perhaps the least known among them continues to be its application to the phenomenon of motion. The question of Becoming occupied the better part of the philosophical inquiries of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, as they were greatly influenced by the thought of authors such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zenon, Democritus or Aristotle, among others. Yet perhaps the name to which we ought to relate the most extreme philosophical position based on motion is that of mysterious philosopher Cratylus, who is said to have reformulated and radicalized Heraclitus’ initial theses. Cratylus would have then applied the notion of infinity to that of change, thus building the so-called “Thesis of total instability”, which claims motion is not only constant, but also infinite and absolute, and therefore, the reality that is subjected to it cannot be determined. Even though we only know about this doctrine through its mere formulation and a few not very detailed descriptions, our intention would be precisely to demonstrate that, on the basis of the testimonies transmitted to us about his thought or indirectly about his philosophical position, we can sustain that Cratylus’s theory constitutes the first historical formulation of physical indeterminism.

Aristotle’s defence of the principle of non-contradiction has been recently criticized by Graham Priest. I argue that Priest’s arguments do not work against the primary version of aristotle’s principle; Priest relies on assumptions aristotle does not, and need not, accept. However, I argue that Aristotle’s denial of the existence of points can be used to criticise his defence of non-contradiction.

Colloque "Lectures d'un Lecteur - Kritik des Verstehens", 9-11 novembre 2021 (Bern, Fribourg)

D’Empédocle à Celan, les lectures de Bollack se sont attachées à une notion : la libération des mots. La présente communication explicite cette notion à partir de son interprétation du Cratyle, dont les résultats n’ont été que très partiellement publiés. Il s’agira notamment de faire apparaître les visées diverses et parfois concurrentes que poursuit cette lecture. Car, loin de seulement chercher à récupérer le sens authentique du dialogue, elle témoigne d’une part de la consolidation progressive d’une théorie bollackienne de la création poétique (assimilée à la pratique étymologique en ce qu’elle procède d’un rapport libre et quasi-onirique au matériau verbal) ; d’autre part, son auteur les insère explicitement dans un approfondissement de l’enquête sur les usages antiques de l’étymologie : leur mise en scène dans le Cratyle devrait permettre de mieux comprendre le rôle du matériau verbal pour les penseurs pré-platoniciens. Enfin, nous nous demanderons comment opérer ce rétro-éclairage. Nous suggérerons que les pistes esquissées par Bollack souffrent a) de la diversité de visées qui anime sa lecture et b) d’une identification au point de vue Platon qu’il reconstruit ; puis nous proposerons une autre démarche pour éclairer les discours de savoir pré-platoniciens (plus particulièrement celui d’Empédocle) à partir du Cratyle.

The Derveni Papyrus was salvaged from a funeral pyre in Northern Greece in 1962, though only officially published in 2006.  It is a unique Pre-Socratic commentary on an Orphic poem and ritual sequence. Borrowing from Anaxagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia and Heraclitus, the Derveni author presents a philosophical interpretation of an Orphic poem relying on etymologising divine names into a cosmological account.  While this combination may seem idiosyncratic, a close relation between the D.P. and Plato’s own etymological study, the Cratlyus has been posited since its discovery. In ‘Was Euthyphro the author of the Derveni Papyrus’ Charles Kahn points to several commonalities, including etymologising based on divine inspiration, a close association with Anaxagorean Nous and Celestial divinities, and of course Hearcltitan flux (413c). Aside from these shared theoretical focuses, Plato too includes Orpheus among the ancient poets (402b), and even etymologises the famous Orphic soma/psyche distinction (Crat. 400c4-9). Kahn has thus strongly argued that ‘the importance of the papyrus document for an understanding of Plato’s Cratylus is incontestable.’  While a close connection is clear, scholars have tended to underestimate the theoretical coherence of the D.P, usually seeing it as raw and slightly confused material which Plato refines into a coherent theory.  I have two aims in this presentation. Firstly, by reconstructing a tentative theory of names in the D.P, I will argue that the Derveni author espouses a more sophisticated view than is generally acknowledged. And secondly, that Plato extensively borrows, and occasionally distorts, this theory.