Primary Exploration Of Plato's Philosophy Of Language

Plato's conversation is one of the richest treasures for researches on western philosophy, from which we can find quite edifying ideas for a good many questions under study. Even philosophy of language in the last century, which almost covers all the major work of contemporary western philosophy, can be found the primal manifestation from it. However, people seldom notice that. Thus, this article would try to make all-sided and systematical analysis and study on Plato's philosophy of language.In Plato's philosophy, there're not only a set of grand plan of philosophy of language but also practical measures for this plan. The procedure of implementation starts from discussion on the denotative question of various words as designation, then review of statement and its properties which is composed by designation, finally the relationship between language and actuality. Plato insisted that language couldn't reproduce absolutely precise actuality, and accordingly did not offer the exact answer to relative questions. Nevertheless, the frame of thoughts he established prescribes the theme and bounds of discussion for the philosophers after "linguistics turn".The article aims at teasing the venation of thoughts of Plato's philosophy of language. It analyzes such thoughts, attempting to start with the simplest thing, then raveling complex things gradually, namely, starting with discussion on the denotative question of various words as designation, then review of statement and its properties which is composed by designation, finally the relationship between language and actuality. At the same time, contradiction of Sophister's thoughts can be seen everywhere in Plato's conversation. He deemed that those philosophers fractured the language and confused the people's minds by using kinds of rhetorical figure. One of the purposes of his philosophy is to find out correct manner of discussion. Therefore, the language view of sage pre Plato will be enumerated in the article for the comparative analysis. Lastly, Plato's philosophy of language is actually deepen of his subject "idea". The understanding of human existence and its relationship with the world in his philosophy of language has great influence on western philosophy, which is also the attempt of analysis in the article.