PREMIUM-Ep. 324: Plato's "Cratylus" on Language (Part Three)

Mark and Wes do a Closeread on the latter part of the dialogue, where Socrates argues to Cratylus that even if names (words) were devised to somehow depict the things they stand for, that wouldn't guarantee that they ACCURATELY describe the world. You can't look at the definitions of words to learn about the world; you have to actually investigate the world directly.  Closereads supporters (see patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy) can watch video for this episode and get all the Closereads content: 13 episodes so far, including new episodes on Epictetus' Discourses. This Closeread and some others are also being made available to PEL supporters. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion, you can sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.