432a-c: Socrates' reply is that names are a type of image, which have sensory qualities. And images with sensory qualities admit of slight alterations without becoming an image of an entirely new object. This is because if an image duplicated all of the qualities of the thing of which it is an image, it would be a qualitatively identical copy of that thing and not an actual image of it.
433a-b: "I think we had better accept this, Cratylus, or else, like men lost on the streets of Aegina late at night, we, too, may incur the charge of truly seeming to be the sort of people who arrive at things later than they should" -- Uh, what? Anyone want to help me out with this?
Good post, Ian.
ReplyDeletePerseus says that the Aegina line is a reference to something lost to history.
I'll be interested to compare the account of imitating here to the account of dreaming we get in other dialogues.