Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Learning
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Learning
Plato’s Theory of Knowledge on the Doctrine of Recollection
Gian Gwen Louied M. Arligue
AB – Philosophy II
Philosophy 15
Epistemology and Gnoseology
Introduction
Knowledge and the questions concerning and surrounding it are often raised ever since the great era of the ancient philosophers. However, some philosophers do not take into consideration the possibility of knowledge. On the other hand, some of them affirm. One prominent and promising ancient philosopher, Plato, posits that there is knowledge and that man is capable of knowing. Then he takes into account how man acquires it. Further, he points out that knowledge is not something of a learning that is entirely new to the knower. Instead, he recognizes an understanding of knowledge as something that is made aware through recollection.
This paper endeavors to uncover what knowledge is and the conditions for its possibility by taking on Plato’s epistemology. I will place Plato’s distinction between knowledge and opinion first. And to further understand his position on knowledge, the Theory of Forms must be explained. Additionally, the Allegory of the Cave is then described since it illustrates how knowledge revolves around this theory.
Knowledge and Opinion To come up with the appropriate understanding of knowledge, it is necessary to distinguish it from opinion. Plato lays
…show more content…
If Forms are the basic objects of knowledge and are not in the material world, then we must have acquired that knowledge at some point prior to our commerce with that world. On this basis, learning is no other than recollection. And that this is only possible if the mind or the soul preexisted and already has that knowledge before it is confined in the physical
Plato's best-known distinction between knowledge and opinion occurs in the Meno. The distinction rests on an analogy that compares the acquisition and retention of knowledge to the acquisition and retention of valuable material goods. But Plato saw the limitations of the analogy and took pains to warn against learning the wrong lessons from it. In the next few pages I will revisit this familiar analogy with a view to seeing how Plato both uses and distances himself from it.
Life without knowledge would be worthless. Talking about knowledge what i mean is knowledge about something. The description of the state of some object is knowledge. The object may be either abstract or physical. Some examples of abstract things include memory, feelings and time. But how we obtain knowledge? Many philosophers tried to find an adequate answer to this question. They came up with so many theories summarizing the process of knowledge. But none of them all was able to state a clear definition of pure knowledge. One of those philosophers is Plato. In this essay I am going to discuss the concept of knowledge according to Plato’s philosophic conception of knowledge. I will clarify what knowledge is not perception. And from this I will move to explain the justified true belief theory. Then I will show the lack in this theory by referring to counterexamples: the Gettier cases. To end up with a conclusion that states what is my understanding of the process of knowledge.
The irrational concept of the education has been influenced moral principles concerning what is good for a society as well as for an individual; however, the understanding of the intrinsic nature of the education removes the darkness of beliefs, which Plato calls prisoners’ shadows in his writing The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates. Although “The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was written thousands of years ago, Plato’s depiction of the true education is a wakeup call for our humanity to admit the acquisition of knowledge with circumspection. The truth often relies on a mistaking understanding of sight or shadow according to Plato; the truth regularly relies on prejudice which makes an individual a prisoner, and the discovery of new truth often encounters hostility. A close analysis of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave allows us to view the education as not a way to transfer knowledge, but a way to transform
All true knowledge is knowledge of the Forms. Therefore, we can only acquire true knowledge by recollection. Furthermore, since true knowledge of particulars cannot exist, only recollection of the Forms is possible.
These forms of analysis point to us that even if we can see things it still does not mean that it does not exist. Plato revealed to us that we have three stages of knowledge growth: Thinking, Intelligence, and Belief. The one that would have made it four, Imagining, Plato describes it as the lowest among this growth.
The Allegory of the Cave has many applications to both Plato’s writing and life in general. It describes the education of a philosopher, as well as how others look on the philosopher after he has gained the knowledge of the Forms. It also describes what it is like to see the forms. After understanding the forms, what once were objects, real things, become merely shadows. One sees everything as it truly exists, as it’s form.
When Plato tried to distinguish in "The Theatetus" between mere belief and knowledge, as an attempt to answer the skeptical doubts concerning the possibility of our knowledge of the external world , he has created what has become known throughout the history of philosophy as "epistemology" and what has since then, become a distinct province of inquiry whose main concern is determining the nature, the scope, the sources and limits of human knowledge.
General ideas can be formed by the mind without the use of our senses or sensory organs. Senses are acquired at birth but, the essentials of knowledge, truth and being, is slowly and hardly gain through many years of education, experience, and reflection later on. We now know that we cannot get the essentials of knowledge, truth and being for perception itself. Therefore knowledge cannot be based on
Plato’s theory of recollection on how our minds can obtain knowledge is of great significance. He presents a strong theory on why the mind should not cease to expand its knowledge. The theory of recollection emphasizes the human mind can obtain knowledge and define what virtue really is. This theory is essential to Plato and Meno continuing their work on obtaining knowledge. Unfortunately, the theory of recollection presents an infinite regress of how the soul first obtains the knowledge to “recollect.” Despite the fallacy in Plato’s theory of recollection, he still proves his point to Meno that the mind can obtain knowledge, and the search for knowledge should continue.
In The Republic, Plato presents the relationship of the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave in connection to his epistemology and metaphysics. Throughout the Republic he discusses his beliefs on many topics using examples that express his ideas more thoroughly. He is able to convey very complex beliefs through his examples of the Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s epistemology depicts his idea of the Divided Line which is a hierarchy where we discover how one obtains knowledge and the Allegory of the Cave relates to Plato’s metaphysics by representing how one is ignorant/blinded at the lowest level but as they move up in the Divided Line, they are able to reach enlightenment through the knowledge of the truth.
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 the Phaedo Socrates claims that the soul is indeed immortal, that it lives forever and cannot die even after the body has died, thus philosophers spend their lives devaluing themselves from their body. Socrates presents the Theory of Recollection to persuade his fellow philosophers that have convened inside his cell that the soul is immortal. In essence, the recollection argument refers to the act of learning, because the soul is immortal, according to Socrates, then this suggests that when a person is learning something they are actually relearning it, because their soul has existed before they were born. This idea of recollecting knowledge is prominent and is the most convincing argument in proving the existence of immortality through the soul, however, this argument does not suggest that the soul continues to exist after death and lacks clarity regarding what truly happens after a person dies.
In Phaedo, Socrates proposes his theory that all learning is recollection. Socrates believes that “to know is to acquire knowledge, keep it and not lose it”(Plato 114). This means that humans are always seeking knowledge and when they do lose it, the cycle begins again through learning by recollection. One way humans recollect is when they see one thing, it triggers the memory of another. Essentially Socrates is trying to say that “the sight of one thing makes you think of another”(Plato 112). The primary example Socrates uses is remembering a forgotten loved one. A person will notice something that prompts their mind to remember a forgotten memory. For example, if the loved one always smelt like lavender and honey and one day you smelt
1)Plato argues that "what we call learning is recollection"(Plato, 73b, P.138). He explains further that recollection is the process of remembering and bringing previously known things that we actually have forgotten out of our memory.
By Characterizing himself –Socrates- as both ignorant and wise, he presents us with one of the most striking paradoxes. Like so many of the other philosophers, is provocative in that its apparent self-contradiction hides an important idea for us readers to discover. Though out this text Socrates ignorance results from his belief that he has no knowledge of moral idea, or moral properties, such as justice, virtue, piety, and beauty. He asserts that, if only he knew the relevant definitions, he would be a moral expert who could answer philosophical questions about moral properties- questions such as is a certain action just? Or is it truly good for a man to be virtuous? Socrates believes that only someone that is “truly wise” would know these essential definitions and be able to provide such expert answers. It is important to determine whether Socrates does, in fact, accept priority of definition principle and, if he does, whether he is committed to a false and problematic principle that subjects him to catastrophic results. A textual analysis will be a philosophic inquiry into Socrates’ conception of knowledge, considering what he believes knowledge to be, how the knowledge of definitions fits into his epistemology, and whether or not his conception of knowledge is philosophical compelling.