Plato, Cratylus, section 388b

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[388b]

Socrates
And what do we do when we weave? Do we not separate the mingled threads of warp and woof?

Hermogenes
Yes.

Socrates
And you could give a similar answer about the borer and the rest, could you not?

Hermogenes
Certainly.

Socrates
And can you say something of the same kind about a name? The name being an instrument, what do we do with it when we name?

Hermogenes
I cannot tell.

Socrates
Do we not teach one another something, and separate things according to their natures?

Hermogenes
Certainly.

Socrates
A name is, then, an instrument of teaching and of separating reality,

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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