Hierarchical Structure of a Name in Plato’s Understanding

The paper considers one of the components of Plato’s universe – the name in its relations with letters and syllables, and among other parts of speech. It is suggested that there is a hierarchy of entities, and accordingly, an attempt is made to elucidate the place of the name in the above-mentioned mentioned relations. It is revealed that the hierarchical relations of a name and other words (parts of speech) are presented in an ambivalent and contradictory manner. Firstly , as entities of the «world of appearances» they are located at the same level, secondly, the name can be understood as a hierarchically higher generalized level of ideas of a thing than just the words denoting a number of the features of a thing. Letters and syllables represent the elements of hierarchically organized matter for the embodiment of the idea of a name.

Keywords: Plato, hierarchy, name, word, idea, matter, adjective, verb, letters, first principles, the «world of forms», the «world of appearances», analogy.