Platonic recollection

Meno asks how one can search for what one does not know and recognize it upon finding it, while what is already known appears not to need inquiry. Socrates rejects this difficulty as a reason to stop investigating.

He introduces the soul’s prior learning and proposes to test recollection through questioning. Recollection here concerns bringing unacknowledged knowledge to light, rather than simply remembering a name forgotten the previous day.

References: [1]

Socrates asks an enslaved attendant how to double a square’s area. Doubling its side produces four times the area, and another proposed side also fails. Recognizing ignorance becomes a stage in continuing the inquiry.

Using diagrams and diagonals, the exchange reaches the doubled-area square. Socrates interprets the answers as awakened true opinions, distinguishing them from knowledge secured through repeated questioning. The scene also visibly depends on the questions and diagrams through which the investigation is directed.

References: [1]

The Phaedo contrasts apparently equal sticks or stones with equality itself. Socrates argues that judging sensible things deficient against that standard presupposes knowledge of the equal and connects this with knowledge before birth.

Simmias nevertheless observes that pre-existence alone would not establish survival after death. The dialogue retains this distinction in what has been argued.

References: [2]