CRATYLUS
By Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates Hermogenes Cratylus.
HERMOGENES: Suppose that we make Socrates a party to the argument?
CRATYLUS: If you please.
HERMOGENES: I should explain to you Socrates that our friend Cratylus has been arguing about names; he says that they are natural and not conventional; not a portion of the human voice which men agree to use; but that there is a truth or correctness in them which is the same for Hellenes as for barbarians. Whereupon I ask him whether his own name of Cratylus is a true name or not and he answers 'Yes.' And Socrates? 'Yes.' Then every man's name as I tell him is that which he is called