[70] Plato, Kratyl. pp. 434-435.
All names are not consistent with the theory of Herakleitus: some are opposed to it.
All names are not like the things named: some names are bad, others good: the law-giver sometimes gave names under an erroneous belief. Hence you are not warranted in saying that things must be known and investigated through names, and that whoever knows the name, knows also the thing named. You say that the names given are all coherent and grounded upon the Herakleitean theory of perpetual flux. You take this as a proof that that theory is true in itself, and that the law-giver adopted and proceeded upon it as true. I agree with you that the law-giver or name-giver believed in the Herakleitean theory, and adapted many of his names to it: but you cannot infer from hence that the theory is true — for he may have been mistaken.[71] Moreover, though many of the existing names consist with, and are based upon, that theory, the same cannot be said of all names. Many names can be enumerated which are based on the opposite principle of permanence and stand-still. It is unsafe to strike a balance of mere numbers between the two: besides which, even among the various names founded on the Herakleitean theory, you will find jumbled together the names of virtues and vices, benefits and misfortunes. That theory lends itself to good and evil alike; it cannot therefore be received as true — whether the name-giver believed in it or not.[72]
[71] Plato, Kratyl. p. 439 B-C. Ἔτι τοίνυν τόδε σκεψωμεθα, ὅπως μὴ ἡμᾶς τὰ πολλὰ ταῦτα ὀνόματα ἐς ταυτὸν τείνοντα ἐξαπατᾷ, καὶ τῷ ὄντι μὲν οἱ θέμενοι αὑτὰ διανοηθέντες τε ἔθεντο ὡς ἰόντων ἀπάντων ἀεὶ καὶ ῥεόντων — φαίνονται γὰρ ἔμοιγε καὶ αὐτοὶ οὔτω διανοηθῆναι — τὸ δ’, εἰ ἔτυχεν, οὐχ οὔτως ἔχει, &c.
These words appear to me to imply that Sokrates is perfectly serious, and not ironical, in delivering his opinion, that the original imposers of names were believers in the Herakleitean theory.
[72] Plato, Krat. pp. 437-438 C.
Sokrates here enumerates the particular names illustrating his judgment. However strange the verbal transitions and approximations may appear to us, I think it clear that he intends to be understood seriously.
It is not true to say, That Things can only be known through their names.
Lastly, even if we granted that things may be known and studied through their names, it is certain that there must be some other way of knowing them; since the first name-givers (as you yourself affirm) knew things, at a time when no names existed.[73] Things may be known and ought to be studied, not through names, but by themselves and through their own affinities.[74]
[73] Plato, Krat. p. 438 A-B. Kratylus here suggests that the first names may perhaps have been imposed by a super-human power. But Sokrates replies, that upon that supposition all the names must have been imposed upon the same theory: there could not have been any contradiction between one name and another.