Meno's Paradox and The Theory

A detailed Summary of Meno's Paradox and The Theory

Meno's Paradox and The Theory of Recollection

Meno's paradox is an argument in the form of a question. As it is written Meno asks, "How will you look for something when you don't know what it is.. or even if you come right up on it, how will you know that what you have found is the thing that you didn't know?" Socrates states it more simply, "A man cannot try to discover either what he knows or what he does not know." This is the matter for inquiry. Socrates stated, "He would not seek what he knows for since he knows it there is no need of the inquiry, nor even what he does not know, for in that case he does not even know what he is to look for." Socrates solves this through the theory of recollection. As Socrates stated 82D, "the soul has learned everything, so that when a man has recalled a single piece of knowledge -learned it, ...there is no reason why he should not find out all the rest, ...for seeking and learning are in fact nothing but recollection." The theory that the soul has learned everything implies that teaching and inquiry, are simply remembering latent knowledge, thus making it possible to inquire and to be taught knowledge that one was not aware that one had.

Meno's paradox is, as Socrates states, a trick

Socrates solves this through the theory of recollection. Socrates says not to hold him to every detail but that the theory of recollection has been reasoned through the notion that "the soul of a man is immortal; at one time it comes to an end - that which is called death - and at another is born again, but is never finally exterminated. ...Thus, the soul, since it is immortal and has been born many times, and has seen all things both here and in the other world, has learned everything that is."

The essential reasoning behind the theory of recollection is that the soul never really dies. The soul that one comes equipped with has an eternity of lifetimes in the past. In these lifetimes, the soul has learned at one point or another all knowledge that exists to man that the soul could be capable of comprehending. Socrates states that the truth about reality is always in our soul. In that sense, it may not be knowledge that one has such that one already knows a fact, but that one has the capacity for understanding that knowledge or fact.

The main idea of Meno's paradox as stated by Socrates would complicate learning, in which to start the learning process one would have to inquire upon a subject. One could not choose a subject to inquire upon if one did not know what it is that one does not know. As Socrates stated, One cannot discover what he knows or does not know. This is the problem for inquiry such that Socrates elaborated on, one would not seek what it is that one knows. One would not do this because one knows it, and there is no need of the inquiry. This is true for knowledge that one does not know. Because one does not know what one does not know, one does not know what it is that one is to look for. Perhaps more simply put, you know what you know, and the same is true for the inverse. You do not know what you do not know. Therefore, you do not need to inquire upon

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Approximate Word count = 1274
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts