Plato Paradox Of Recollection Essay

1247 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Criticism of Plato's theory of recollection

Is Plato’s Theory of Recollection a plausible solution to Meno’s Paradox of Knowledge?

The general topic is Plato’s theory of recollection. Is Plato’s Theory of Recollection the plausible solution to Meno’s Paradox of Knowledge? Throughout many of his dialogues Plato often concludes that we cannot know something through our senses. He often concludes that we became acquainted with our knowledge in a previous existence. In Meno, Socrates states that, “As the soul is immortal, has been born often, and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned; so it is in no way surprising that it can recollect the things it knew before…” In many of Plato’s works is it difficult to recognize as to where our thoughts and/or total knowledge initially came “to be.”
With the use of Socrates’ elenchus , Meno finds himself in aporia , and leads him to introduce us to, what is titled, the paradox of knowledge. It is, as he states:
MENO: How will you look for it, Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? How will you aim to search for something you do not know at all? If you should meet with it, how will you know that this is the thing that you did not know?

Meno wants to know how you are supposed to search for something you cannot even identify as the subject of …show more content…

Tis theory consists of the following theses: (1) the soul is immortal (2) there is nothing which the soul has not learned; and (3) what humans call learning is actually recollecting. For Socrates, there is no difference between “learning” and recollecting. “As the whole of nature is akin, and the soul has learned everything, nothing prevents a man, after recalling one thing only – a process men call learning…” In more common words, knowledge is simply forgotten memories and learning is the process of remembering these ideas, by this man is able to recognize the true from the

Show More
Related

  • Plato’s Five Dialogues and Applications of Today’s Society

    1181 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Socrates Just Life Analysis

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates uses the explanation of food and drink and knowledge and intelligence in order to explain what is in a truer form of being. He states that while hunger and thirst will eventually come back once they are subdued by food and drink the man whom seeks knowledge and intelligence becomes ever full. This fullness is what it is like for a man to live a just life and thus the proper human life. Since the just life is the most pure form of being. He backs this claim by asking several questions such as which is more? A thing that is always going to be connected to something else and that is the same and is also always true, or something that is connected to something that is never the same as one thing and is mortal and only exists in itself. The obvious answer to this question would be that of the thing that is connected eternally is more. This is because the only thing that is of the most substance and that is more is of the thing that contains knowledge. “And the being of that which is always the same, does it participate in being any more than in knowledge?” “Not at all.” Socrates goes on to further strengthen his proposal by saying that if something is less in truth than it is less in being. This holds true for man as well. If a man pursues truth in a lesser way then he himself is not living a just life, as the life of justice is the only life to live that is worthwhile. The type of man that care more about the body and things of that nature are less in the way of truth than that of a man who is more concerned with the

    Read More

  • Socrates In The Apology And 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    This quote can be used to argue what kind things he would say to our society by providing an example of what his beliefs are. He is saying that once we can only become philosophers we will be able to stop indulging ourselves with our senses and only use them when necessary. Socrates point view of philosophy is when one wants to acquire prudence and irrefutable truth, which was discussed in a classroom community among classmates, simply when wants continuously want to learn and can never be satisfied with what they know. By learning, what Socrates means is our soul 's recollecting knowledge that body hinders the soul from remembering. This is seen in Meno where Socrates shows Meno how a boy figuring out the answers to a question is actually recollecting the knowledge instead of learning something new. He would make a statement about our education system and what we currently see as knowledge what was we should see as knowledge. The way we should learn by his definition would be to have classroom discussions sessions as agreed upon by critical think by my classmates and myself in a philosophy course. Socrates would tell us how we would need to focus on recollecting and focus on feeding our soul instead of our bodies, how we would need to make major changes such as our use of technology for only necessary uses and not merely for mindless entertainment much like how we all use laptops, phones, and the

    Read More

  • Runaway Statues: Platonic Lessons on the Limits of an Analogy

    3244 Words  | 7 Pages

    ABSTRACT: 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 this paper, I will revisit this familiar analogy with a view to seeing how Plato both uses and distances himself from it.

    Read More

  • Meaning Making and the Importance of Questioning in the Great Books Pantheon

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    Socrates, the father of Philosophy, is perhaps one of the best examples of the importance of questioning human constructs. In Meno, ...

    Read More

  • Meno's Paradox

    2022 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is thought that Meno's paradox is of critical importance both within Plato's thought and within the whole history of ideas. It's major importance is that for the first time on record, the possibility of achieving knowledge from the mind's own resources rather than from experience is articulated, demonstrated and seen as raising important philosophical questions.

    Read More

  • Plato's Doctrine of Recollection

    412 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Theaetetus

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates examines the first definition of knowledge that theaetetus gives that knowledge is perception. Socrates gives us many example that both supports and refutes that knowledge is perception. The basic claim from Protagoras is that truth is based on the perception of every man. This means that things are to any person as they seem to that person. Socrates explains to us Protagoras’s view with the cold wind example.

    Read More

  • Peter Geach's Analysis Of The Socratic Fallacy

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly, Beversluis and Prior posit that there seems to be a large difference among the Platonic dialogues of the meaning of knowledge (within the dialogues themselves) pre and post–Meno (Beversluis 218, Prior 101). Not only can this indicate where among the Platonic corpus the Socratic fallacy is more likely to arise, but also, depending on the definition of knowledge, the Socratic fallacy may be applied in different ways. This also creates a problem for the Socratic fallacy, as applying a definition of knowledge post-Meno may not in fact be the sort of knowledge Socrates is looking for and the definition of knowledge pre-Meno seems to be in flux as most of the early Platonic dialogues end in aporia. Another important thing to note in regards to the theory surrounding the fallacy is that there seems to be a lack of textual evidence on Geach’s part to suggest that the Socratic fallacy is such a massive setback in the Socratic method as he seems to think (Beversluis 212). Additionally, with the pre and post-Meno distinction in mind, it may only be possible to examine the early dialogues for the Socratic fallacy, those that are arguably Socrates’ point of view rather than Plato’s (Prior 100). This further distinction creates the

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Is Google Making USupid

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    It says that Socrates feared that people are relying more on written words than using their memory. He believes that if you don’t exercise your memory, then you can become more forgetful. Carr also believes this to be true because we are using the internet to look up answers for us and not doing the research to find it ourselves. We’re not relying on our memory to remember what we read we’re just looking for the answers.

    Read More

  • The Doctrine of Recollection

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Plato’s Meno, Socrates suggested that knowledge comes from recollection, or, in Greek, anamnesis. He believes that the knowledge is already implanted in the human mind, and by recollection, men can retrieve back knowledge. There are two stages to this: first, a “stirring up” of true, innate opinions, then, a conversion of the knowledge (Gulley). Furthermore, Socrates believes that we acquired knowledge before this life. “As the soul is immortal, has been born often, and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned” (Plato 81c). Socrates holds the idea of reincarnation—as the soul reincarnates through many lives, it learns everything. Overall, the Doctrine of Recollection is based on two premises. The first is the immortality of the soul, along with its incarnations, and the second is the kinship of all nature (Ionescu).

    Read More

  • The Immortalityality Of The Soul In The Meno

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Plato vs. Aristotle

    350 Words  | 1 Pages

    Secondly, Plato and Aristotle contrast in their view of what knowledge we possess at birth. Plato supports the doctrine of Innatism, which claims that we enter this world with prior knowledge. All people possess immortal souls; therefore, the knowledge acquired in one life can be transferred into the next reincarnation. However, we forget the knowledge at the shock of birth and we then spend the rest of our lives trying to retrieve the lost knowledge. In contrast, Aristotle's doctrine of Tabula Rasa, or blank slate, states that we are born without any knowledge. Aristotle also claimed we possess souls, but he disagreed with Plato on the soul's status of immortality. Aristotle felt souls do not return to the world, so knowledge cannot be returned to the world either.

    Read More

  • Plato's Theory Of Knowledge Summary

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato believes there is two types of worlds that are of knowledge and opinion. As he understands, what is an every lasting reality is a true knowledge, which is the heart of what needs to be understood and everything people need to know. As he says for opinion, it will be only successful some times, as knowledge will always be right and successful at all times when implemented. An opinion for him has no base on true knowledge, but pure people’s speculations of their points of views. A true knowledge will never be influenced by any changes and it cannot be affected by anything; it will stand alone without changing. In Plato’s argument of how men will acquire knowledge in life, he says that knowledge resides in men’s immortal soul prior to his birth; this is how men will first encounter what he calls the “Forms” in that

    Read More

  • The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates was considered by many to be the wisest man in ancient Greece. While he was eventually condemned for his wisdom, his spoken words are still listened to and followed today. When, during his trial, Socrates stated that, “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 45), people began to question his theory. They began to wonder what Socrates meant with his statement, why he would feel that a life would not be worth living. To them, life was above all else, and choosing to give up life would be out of the picture. They did not understand how one would choose not to live life just because he would be unable to examine it.

    Read More

More about Plato Paradox Of Recollection Essay

Open Document