PhD defence: "Appearance and reality. Socrates' aims and strategies in Plato's Cratylus"

PhD defence by Steffen Lund Jørgensen, Department of Greek and Latin, Saxo Institute.

Steffen Lund Jørgensen

The nature of language
The Cratylus is Plato’s (427-347 BCE) only dialogue dedicated to the nature of language. The central issue of the dialogue concerns linguistic correctness and boils down to the question: is there some natural standard of linguistic correctness which goes beyond mere human agreement?

The dialogue is the foundational text in the Western tradition of philosophical reflections on the nature of language, but it also covers many other topics including the nature of reality and the Greek cultural tradition.

Socrates’ aims and strategies
The main speaker in the dialogue is Socrates (469-399 BCE), who engages first Hermogenes and then Cratylus in philosophical conversation. The historical Socrates wrote nothing, but his life and his way of doing philosophy inspired his young admirer Plato to produce a large number of literary and philosophical masterpieces featuring Socrates as the main speaker.

New interpretation

  • What are Socrates' aims and strategies in the Cratylus?
  • Does Socrates seek to convince his interlocutors that there is a source of linguistic correctness, which goes beyond human agreement, and which really determines whether the name of something is the correct name?
  • Or does Socrates seek to achieve the opposite?

These questions are central to this dissertation, which offers a new interpretation of Plato's Cratylus. In the thesis Steffen Lund Jørgensen argues that Socrates really does seek to convince his interlocutors that there is a "natural correctness of names", but that he does so in a very special way, which is closely linked to the specific characters and views of his interlocutors.

Assessment committee

  • Associate Professor Leo Catana (University of Copenhagen)
  • Professor David Sedley (University of Cambridge)
  • Professor Lesley Brown (University of Oxford)

Moderator of the defence

  • Associate Professor Thomas Heine Nielsen (University of Copenhagen)

The defence will take place at 10 am, November 25th, 2015, in room 15A.1.11, KUA 2, Karen Blixens Vej 4, Copenhagen. All interested are welcome.