What is in a Name? Philo's Mystical Philosophy of Language

Abstract

Philo is the first Jewish thinker known to have developed a theory of language. In this field he is remarkably original, departing from Plato's theories which serve in numerous other fields as his philosophical framework.2 These innovative contributions are moreover made from a clearly Jewish point of view. The most important, yet hitherto unrecognized aspect of Philo's concept of language is his emphasis on its mystical dimension. He is thus particularly interested in the question of how a name can actually reflect the true essence or the idea of the object named. This relationship naturally escapes precise and exhaustive description because of the ethereal nature of the ideas involved. While Plato ultimately left this question open,3 Philo attempts a more accurate

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