Re: nomothete

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:13:07 -0500, Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
> Can "nomothete" or "Nomothete" mean "name-giver" as well as "lawgiver"?
> Umberto Eco seems to use this term with the latter sense:
>
> "...'out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
> every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call
> them'.  The interpretation of the passage is an extremely delicate matter.
> Clearly we are in the presence of a motif, common to other religions and
> mythologies -- that of the nomothete, the name-giver, the creator of
> language."
>
> Search for the Perfect Language, p. 8.
>
> Is Eco using the word incorrectly?  I've always understood this to mean
> nomos + theticos.  Is there any context outside of Eco's use of it here
> where this word means giving the name?
Yes.  In Plato's dialogue "Cratylus" it is used it this way.

   << Socrates:
      Perhaps, then, one artisan of names will be good, and another bad?
      Cratylus:
      Yes.
      Socrates:
      The name of such an artisan was lawgiver?  [nomoqeths]
      Cratylus:
      Yes.   >>

I seem to remember a detailed discussion in there of how the nomothete,
if a good one, will assign good sounds to the right words, (e.g., "rho",
a flowing sound, will go in words that pertain to fluid motion) but I'm
not sure where exactly it is right now.

But it seems that you're not the only one to think it a mistake, as
apparently "onomatothete" [onomatoqeths] was often written as a correction
of this word.




	*Muke!
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