Role Of Recollection In Socrates 'Meno'

Where do we gain our understanding from? Or more specifically how do we gain a basic form of understanding and knowledge that we assume commonplace, Reason and experience stipulates we gain our knowledge by learning from others who already have the knowledge we seek to gain. But how do they gain that desirable understanding? The response could easily be that they learned from their predecessor. However, we end up in a pattern of infinite regress, in which no genuine answer can be provided that satisfies the question, how do we gain knowledge? In the Meno, a work by Plato, Socrates seeks to identify this source of comprehension. Plato makes use of Socratic dialogue in which Socrates, the protagonist, enters into a debate with Meno; the antagonist.

Admittedly, this sort of solution has no jurisdiction over enquiries associated with the empirical or the analytic due to the fact, more often than not, there is a formula that can be followed to arrive at the correct answer on every occasion such as ‘how many students are in the classroom?’ can be easily be answered through counting the number of students in the classroom. However, the theory of recollection concerns itself with enquiries of the nature that cannot be determined through empirical evidence. Metaphysical questions, for example ‘what is justice?’ cannot be evaluated through analytics or empirical study. Instead, Plato’s theory suggests we already have an answer to these questions enclosed within our soul, that our soul has retrieved from experience in a past life. Retrieving an answer is merely a matter of recollecting it and recognising it when we are confronted with a question we apparently fail to be able to answer through empirical and analytical means. In the Meno, Socrates illustrates this through a conversation with a slave boy of Meno’s. Socrates question the slave on their knowledge of geometrical theorem, a non-empirical question. Socrates emphasises that he is not attempting to teach the boy rather questioning him on his knowledge. it becomes evident that the slave boy does not know how find an area double the size of a square drawn by Socrates, however

Namely that for 2 to be true we must accept that Socrates does not teach the slave in any means. However, in the dialogue, it appears that whilst Socrates may only ask questions they are often very suggestive, “and does not this line, reaching from corner to corner, bisect each of these spaces?” to which the slave replies, “Yes,” (Plato and Jowett, 2008, p.117). In my opinion, it seems that Socrates is explaining his work to the slave as he goes from step to step, which I would argue could be argued to be a manner of teaching. Secondly, another issue with this proof of recollection, derived from its standard form, would be surely the contradiction that occurs between 1 and, 2 and 3. If we are to accept the truth of premises 2 and 3 then surely it follows that 1 is a contradiction because if he did not acquire new knowledge during this time then it entails the slave must have known at time A what he knows at time B. I would contend that these two issues of the assumed proof provide an issue for theory of recollection, nevertheless a solution could be that the slave is using reasoning to arrive at the correct answer. Whilst he may not have an entirety of knowledge he may have some knowledge that allows him to deduce an answer from what he previously knows to be so. This could theoretically solve the issues of how we are to retrieve an answer from prior truths we