The ontological question, the ontological argument. The first philosophy, or "science of Being as Being" (Aristotle, Metaphysics, III, 1 and V, 1). What is ontology? "Ontology of becoming": an oxymoron?
Who is this Cratylus, whom Socrates addresses in Plato's dialogue that bears his name? He was an Athenian who had studied with Heraclitus, the philosopher from Asia Minor (Heraclitus of Ephesus), and this Cratylus was one of the young Plato's teachers. According to tradition, Cratylus professed " radical Heraclitatism ". Admittedly, we don't have the works of Heraclitus, but several ancient witnesses report that this philosopher, Heraclitus, said that "you can't go down the same river twice". Why not? Because the second time the river has flowed, it's no longer the same water, and we ourselves are different from one moment to the next. Cratylus would have been noted for his ability to outbid Heraclitus, by asserting that you can't go down the same river even once. Why not? Because, as you descend into the river, the river flows, so from one moment to the next it is no longer the same; and you yourself, in the act of descending, which is an act performed in becoming, are moving.
Aristotle tells us that, from his youth, Plato would have been familiar with Heraclitean ideas, according to which - and I quote Aristotle - "things are in perpetual flux and therefore cannot be the object of science" (987 a). He also tells us that Cratylus himself had come to believe that there's no point in trying to say anything sensible, because the slightest assertion as soon as it's uttered already lags behind what it's talking about; so, at the end of his life, he contented himself with wagging his finger: silence, as a response to the perpetual slippage of becoming (1010 a, 10-15).
