Note 23 — Chapter XXXI · KRATYLUS.

Proklus, in his Scholia on the Kratylus, p. 32, ed. Boisson, cites the argument used by Aristotle against Plato on this very subject of names — τὰ μὲν φύσει, παρὰ πᾶσι τὰ αὐτά· τὰ δὲ ὀνόματα οὐ παρὰ πᾶσι τὰ αὐτά· ὤστε τὰ φύσει ὄντα οὔκ ἐστιν ὀνόματα, καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα οὐκ εἰσι φύσει. Ammonius ad Aristot. De Interpretat. p. 100, a. 28, Schol. Bekk. Sextus Empiricus adv. Mathemat. i. 145-147, p. 247, Fab.

Plato had assimilated naming to cutting and burning. Aristotle denies the analogy: he says that cutting and burning are the same to all, or are by nature: naming is not the same to all, and is therefore not by nature.

We find here the test pointed out to distinguish what is by nature (that which Plato calls the οὐσίαν βέβαιον τῶν πραγμάτων — p. 386 E), — viz. That it is the same to all or among all. What it is to one individual, it is to another also. There are a multitude of different judging subjects, but no dissentient subjects: myself, and in my belief all other subjects, are affected alike. This is the true and real Objective: a particular fact of sense, where Subject is not eliminated altogether, but becomes a constant quantity, and therefore escapes separate notice. An Objective absolute (i.e., without Subject altogether) is an impossibility.

In the Aristotelian sense of φύσει, it would be correct to say that Language, or Naming in genere, is natural to man. No human society has yet been found without some language — some names — some speech employed and understood by each individual member. But many different varieties of speech will serve the purpose, not indeed with equal perfection, yet tolerably: enough to enable a society to get on. The uniformity (τὸ φύσει) here ceases. To a certain extent, the objects and agencies which are named, are the same in all societies: to a certain extent different. If we were acquainted with all the past facts respecting the different languages which have existed or do exist on the globe, we should be able to assign the reason which brought each particular Nomen into association with its Nominatum. But this past history is lost.