Plato Paradox

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Immortal Horcrux and Our Memory
In Plato’s Meno dialogue, Socrates wondered if Meno had understood the paradox that he had proposed by asking:
“Do you realize what a debater’s argument you are bringing up, that a man cannot search either for what he knows, or for what he does not know? He cannot search for what he knows – since he knows it, there is no need to search – nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for.” (Socrates, 70) As summarized eloquently, Meno’s belief is that man cannot learn something on their own, because they could not truly recognize a concept that they have never encountered before. Socrates perplexes the issue by revealing its paradoxical nature – you could neither seek knowledge you already have, nor knowledge that you do not. Meno’s paradox is an epistemological puzzle that is difficult to answer directly. Refuting Meno’s claim that one cannot recognize what one does not already know seems an easy task, merely …show more content…

This seemingly simple solution, however, does not quite reconcile the deeper nature of this concern: How does one recognize it, can it be said to be true knowledge, or is it perhaps something altogether different than what was first assumed? This raises multiple tiers of questions: How do we learn? How do we know what we already know? How do we know that we know? These are a series of questions that Plato seeks to answer with his “Theory of Recollection”. The “Theory of Recollection” is outlined by Socrates in Plato’s Meno and Phaedo dialogues. Socrates first presents it in the Meno dialogue in a demonstration using one of Meno’s servants. Socrates guides the servant

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