“If the truth of all things always existed in the soul, then the soul is immortal” (The Philosophical Journey 89). This states that since the soul has all knowledge integrated, one recollects this knowledge through situations in an individual’s life and use one’s reasoning. With the dialogues of the Meno and Phaedo, Plato discusses the ideas of recollection and immortality of the soul in general. As well, the Republic, through the three different situations shown, Plato shows the ideas of the forms and what is real and what is not.
In the dialogue of Meno, Socrates explains the idea of recollection with the question and answer period between himself and the boy. Meno asks Socrates, “What do you mean by saying that we do not learn, and that what we call learning is only a process of recollection” (The Philosophical Journey 86). He questions on how one can have knowledge without learning about said knowledge first. Socrates then, through a series of questions and answers with the boy, helps him discover the knowledge that has been hidden inside him all along. This is explained where Socrates states,
He did not know at first, and he does not know now, what is the side of a figure of
eight feet: but then he thought that he knew, and answered confidently as if he knew,
and had no difficulty; now he has a difficulty, and neither he knows nor fancies that
he knows (The Philosophical Journey 88).
Basically, through this event, Socrates has assisted the boy in discovering the truth through only one method of recollecting stored knowledge. Even though the boy may seem confused by the questions, it is only because he has not realized that he had this knowledge and has been obtained.
As well, this process of recollection can be ta...
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...of the Good, which is only seen through effort and understanding. This is something I also stand by because if you do not try and understand a particular belief or question it, then you cannot have knowledge for or against it.
In general, Plato’s theory discusses how recollection, immortality of the soul, and the Forms are essential to understand and reason knowledge. The reader believes that his theory has a strong foundation, where one recollects knowledge and if that is the case, then said knowledge is eternal. As well, the reader also believes with Plato that knowledge can only be obtained through understanding and reasoning and using the forms to see the knowledge that we have. Intelligence is within all; it just has to be discovered.
Work Cited
Lawhead, William. The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach Fifth (5th) Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2010
Before addressing the fundamental issues of the Theory of Recollection, it is worth noting that Socrates never addresses the second half of Meno’s Paradox- assuming one has found what it is they are looking for, how is one to know they have found it if they do not know what they are looking for? There seems to lack a method for verifying one’s answer and if you cannot confirm that what you have found is in fact what you were looking for then inquiry seems to be never-ending. Although this is a discussion for another time, it does highlight an issue, which Socrates faces in the first part of the paradox, the part he addresses, which is the problem of circularity. Ironically, Socrates’ Theory of Recollection, which is used to overcome Meno’s Paradox, is subject to the criticism of being paradoxical. The claim that the soul is immortal and all knowing is necessary for his Theory of Recollection to be true, thus it is vital that Socrates be able prove the immortality of the soul. The issue of circularity arises when Socrates attempts to prove the immortality through the use of the slave boy. According to Socrates, if the slave boy can recall knowledge about geometry, a subject which he appears to know nothing about, then he has successfully proven the existence of an immortal and all knowing soul. Socrates seems to suggest that the knowledge the slave boy is able to recall is evidence of the immortality and all knowing nature of the soul, while also stating that the immortality and all knowing nature of the soul is the reason why learning is just recollection (Fraser). Therefore, his ability to recollect past information is based on the existence of the all knowing and immortal soul and the existence of this soul is based in the slav...
Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own but rather aimed at bringing out the worst in his interlocutors.
The 'doctrine of recollection' states that all true knowledge exists implicitly within us, and can be brought to consciousness - made explicit - by recollection. Using the Platonic concepts of 'Forms', 'particulars', 'knowledge' and 'true opinion', this essay explains what can or cannot be recollected, why all knowledge is based on recollection, and why the doctrine does not prove the soul to be immortal.
In the Meno, Plato justifies the possibility for one’s mind to uncover knowledge. Knowing one can obtain knowledge motivates the mind to gain more knowledge. Plato explains the theory of recollection by first questioning what virtue is, then demonstrating the process through the questioning of a slave boy. Although a few weaknesses present themselves in Plato’s argument, Plato presents a valid theory on how our minds can obtain knowledge. This paper focuses on exploring Plato’s theory of recollection by examining the strengths and weaknesses of his discussion with Meno.
In the Meno, Plato addresses the question of virtue, what it is, how to obtain and if virtue can be taught. Meno came to conclusion after a long discussion with Socrates that it is impossible to know what virtue is. The Meno’x paradox states, “if one knows what virtue is, he does not need to search for it. However, if one does not know what virtue is, how can he search for it? He may not know he has it even when he gets it.” Seeing how hopeless Meno is, Socrates propose the theory of recollection as a way to obtain virtue. This paper will argue against this theory.
Therefore, through the soul, that has been born before being placed into a physical human body, the human has knowledge. As a result of the soul being immortal and knowing everything, Socrates ties that idea of immortality with the theory of recollection, which claims that our knowledge is inside of us because of the soul and it never learns anything new, only remembers, consequently, serving as an evidence that the soul is pre- existent. Socrates uses the knowledge of the soul to explain that there is no such thing as learning but instead there is discovery of the knowledge that one has and does, by himself, without receiving new information. However, most knowledge is forgotten at birth since we are born without knowing, for example, how to add, subtract,talk, etc. Nonetheless, the knowledge we have, has to be recollected with the help of a teacher. Socrates is able to prove this argument to a degree by using Meno’s slave, who had no prior knowledge of geometry before, as an example of how humans have the knowledge inside of them, through the soul, and they know everything but all they need are a sort of guidance to be able to “free” the knowledge they didn’t know they had inside them all this time. (Plato,
In fact, these three arguments are related to each other and cannot stand on their own to draw Plato 's final conclusion that the human soul is immortal. The recollection argument is the most interesting one because of Plato 's way to draw the final conclusion of the argument. Plato 's premises for the recollection argument follow an irrefutable logic. Therefore, the argument is logically valid. However, the soundness of the argument can be put into question since there are gaps and some degree of vagueness to the premises.
My paper takes as the starting point for its argument the traditional interpretation (and classic criticism) of Platonic metaphysics as a two worlds view of reality: one world, that which includes this room of people, i.e., the here and now which is characterized by change, disorder, conflict, coming to be and passing out of being, corruption, etc.; and another world, located who knows where, but certainly not identical to what we see around us at present, the realm of changelessness and order, ontological perdurance, harmony, unity: Plato's "plain of Truth", the residence of the forms. In light of these two worlds, the Platonic philosopher's wisdom, whatever it may be, must be a wisdom not of this world. Indeed, did not Plato's Socrates himself say that his life— the philosophical life— was the art of practising death? Should that Socrates— or anyone who professes to be a Platonic philosopher— show up at, let us say, the World Congress of
The paradox of inquiry also known as Meno's paradox is the question of whether you can inquire something you either know it or you don't know it. The formulation of the paradox of inquiry is either you know x or you don't know x. If you know x,you cannot inquire it. If you don't know x, you cannot inquire it. So, therefore you cannot inquire it. Socrates responds to the paradox of inquiry by 3 solutions. One is the Clenetic reply. Second is the thesis that learning is recollection. Third is the demonstration with a slave boy using geometry.
One of Socrates’ favorite students was Plato. Cross agrees, saying, “Plato (437-347) was Socrates’ prized student.” The thing Plato did was magnificent, he was always questioning Socrates in his teaching because he knew that’s what was expected of him. If we fast forward to modern day teachers, or professors, they are always assumed to be correct and have the highest level of knowledge and wisdom (all the while teaching about Socrates.) This is completely obscene because their teaching method is to not have students question their ideas, but that their ideas are solid, correct, and unwavering. Socrates would highly disagree with this idea. The amazing philosopher so many people refer to, Plato and Socrates both are advocates of students questioning what they learn so they do not become daft robots. Yet in modern day society, many are taught to accept what their professors and teachers say as the cold hard truth that shan’t be
For Plato, Forms are eternal and changeless, but there is a relationship between these eternal and changeless Forms and particular things we perceive by means of our senses in the world. These particular things change in accordance to the perceiver and the perceiver’s environment and this is why Plato thought that such things do not possess real existence. For Plato, onl...
Meno starts with Meno’s question about if virtue can be taught. It is the main theme of the entire dialogue. They both try to answer that question, but at the end it does not seem they both find the exact answer. But, at least they know what they do not know. The conversation between Meno and Socrates is to know what exactly the virtue means and if it can be taught to other people. Meno thinks he know what virtue is in the beginning of the dialogue, but when Socrates starts asking questions to him, Meno realizes that he does not know what virtue is and cannot teach it to Socrates. After that Meno starts realizing what virtue is by asking the question: how can one try to find something even he does not know what he/she is looking for? This is Meno’s paradox. It is important because the paradox shows that without knowing what one is looking for; asking question would not make any sense. Even if one can find an answer, it is not clear that he has knowledge of the answer. It is simply suggests that one can find answers if he/she knows his/her question. With this knowledge, he/she can obtain true belief. Plato’s theory of knowledge is recollection. For Plato, our souls are immortal and lived before our birth. Therefore, they have obtained a lot of knowledge, so we do not obtain knowledge by learning. We already know knowledge of something. We just recollect them.
Plato believed that the body and the soul were two separate entities, the body being mortal and the soul being immortal. In Plato’s phaedo, this is further explained by Socrates. He claims that by living a philosophical life, we are able to eventually free the soul from the body and its needs. If we have not yield to our bodily needs, we should not fear death, since it can than permanently detach the soul from the body. The most convincing argument for the immortality of the body is the theory of recollection, which shows that we are already born with knowledge of forms and that learning is thus recalling these ideas. If we are already born with knowledge this implies that are soul is immortal, since it would otherwise be a blank page.
The soul can be defined as a perennial enigma that one may never understand. But many people rose to the challenge of effectively explaining just what the soul is about, along with outlining its desires. Three of these people are Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. Even though all three had distinctive views, the similarities between their views are strikingly vivid. The soul indeed is an enigma to mankind and the only rational explanation of its being is yet to come and may never arrive.
... when he is discussing the unexamined life. When Socrates mentions the oracle, he is explaining how one can believe he knows all but still can question life. Although he believes that a smarter man will not be found, Socrates still questions and examines the life he leads. This is the basic concept of philosophy, to try to examine and understand what is going on in life. Socrates understands that without this questioning, there would be no philosophy or a worthwhile life. (Plato 25)