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Doctrine of Forms, acquisition of knowledge through the process of recollection and
immortality of a soul are three of the questions that Plato raises in Meno and Phaedo dialogues.
His argument is that all that we can sense is an imperfect reflection of Forms. Unique, universal
Forms exist regardless of our world and our awareness of them. Among these Forms can be
named equality, virtues, goodness and other things that we can not perceive, yet know for sure
what they are. Such universal knowledge Plato though may not be sensed or learned. He suggests
that these Forms are learned through the process of recollection of earlier gained knowledge. He
goes further and suggests that there are no such things that person can not recall, because any
soul is immortal, which means that in other incarnations we learned everything and now we only
need to recall it. To many people immortality of a soul seems to be questionable, so in Phaedo
almost all dialogue is devoted to prove the immortality of a soul and four proofs of such
immortality are given (Phaedo 73a-77b).
The question of Forms fascinated Plato. He returned again and again in his writings to
this topic. Even though in Meno he does not focus on the Doctrine of Forms directly, yet
discussion about the virtue touches upon this topic as well. In the dialogue with Meno Socrates
asks his opponent to provide some definition of virtue in order to go further and answer the
initial question: can virtue be taught or no. Through this dialogue Plato hints that virtue is one of
the Forms, which can not be explained in words well, which can not be perceived sensually, yet
of which people have some sort of genuine knowledge. Through the dialogue with Meno
Socrates rejects various definitions of virtue that his opponent gave. Meno assumed that virtues
are different for different people: men and women, slaves and masters. Yet Socrates continued to
ask for a definition that would describe virtue in general, rather than list various forms of virtues.
He claimed that virtue is a universal thing and that talking about different forms of virtue is
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similar to breaking a plate into pieces of talking about different kind of bees when being asked
what the bee is. Socrates has also not been satisfied with Meno’s explanation that virtue is a
desire for good things and ability to gain them. He has shown that sometimes people can not
recognize good and evil, and that goodness, such as wealth, acquired in an evil way stops being a
goodness, so this may not be a definition of virtue as well. Plato has not discovered the definition
of virtue in Meno dialogue, yet Socrates has managed to give an answer to the question of
whether it can be taught. The conclusion was the virtues are a gift that God gives and that it may
not be taught (Meno 85-89).
In Phaedos Socrates gave an example of Equality Form in order to demonstrate that we
internally know what is equal since our birth even though we have not learned it. Socrates has
shown that even though we often tend to compare things using our senses, yet the knowledge of
whether these things are equal or not we gain by some other mean and that this knowledge is a
kind of Forms as well as a Form of Goodness, or a Form of Beauty. At this point this is possible
to discuss the role that senses play in realizing the existence of Forms. When discussing equality
Socrates has given several examples of how we compare people and objects in order to find out
whether they are equal or not. We compare height, weight, different parts of the objects, their
smell and color using some of our senses. Even though two objects never turn out to be exactly
similar, yet using the same senses we are able to find out what the difference is. Some person
may turn out to be higher than other, a picture may resemble the object being pictured, yet we
can see the obvious difference. Senses help us realize the difference, and let us be aware of a
Form of Equality, because through this understanding of difference we become aware of how
two or more objects may be exactly the same. Plato’s point was that Froms exist regardless of
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our sensible world and awareness of the Forms comes regardless of our ability to touch, see, or
hear.
Proven existence of Forms leads reader to the question of recollection of previous
knowledge, which Plato likely discusses. In both Meno and Phaedos he insists that knowledge at
many times does not come out by the mean of logic but rather comes out of our memory.
Socrates has perfectly demonstrated how this worked while talking with Meno’s slave. The boy
has previously not known how to calculate twice an area of a square. By drawing various
geometrical figures and asking correct questions Socrates has led a boy to a correct answer
without teaching him (Meno 72-79). This way he proved the existence of innate knowledge and
recollection theory.
The theory of recollection is discussed again at the end of the dialogue with Meno when
Socrates dicusses the role of recollection on forming a knowledge. Meno has raised a question of
how knowledge is better than true opinion. He then received such a reply from Socrates: “For
true opinions, as long as they remain, are a fine thing and all they do is good, but they are not
willing to remain long, and they escape from a man's mind, so that they are not worth much until
one ties them down by giving an account of the reason why. And that, Meno my friend, is
recollection, as we previously agreed. After they are tied down, in the first place they become
knowledge, and then they remain in place” (Meno97e-98). This way Plato explained the
difference between belief in a true opinion and knowledge. So the difference in belief and
knowledge according to Plato lies in permanency of knowledge in comparison to a correct belief
which may only turn into knowledge by being supported by recollection. In other words,
Socrates thought of those who have a right belief as of prophets and poets who often speak out
correct opinions by some sort of inspiration and turn out to be right. Coming back to the main
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theme of Meno, those who are virtuous have became like this by divine inspiration, not because
they possess some sort of knowledge. So virtuousness can be compared to a right belief and may
not be taught without being supported by recollection, which would then turn into knowledge.
Plato came back again to the question of recollection in Phaedos and in this dialogue it
became a part of the proof of soul immortality. This is necessary though to link all three ideas of
Plato in order to get a full picture of this proof. In Meno using the slave boy Socrates has
demonstrated that knowledge can be a result of recollection. He also has proved that there are
such things that we know initially, such as understanding of the goodness, beauty, or equality.
Plato used the term “forms” in order to describe such things. As long as these two proofs are not
doubted the immortality of a soul or at least its preexistence can easily be proven. Socrates
explained it. As long as human beings know some things, such as a sense of equality, since their
birth without being taught them, it means that this knowledge has been recalled somehow.
Socrates has suggested that there is no way children can recall these things or Forms, if their soul
has not gained this knowledge in previous lives. This idea leads to the conclusion that soul has
previously gained knowledge of Forms, and this knowledge is recalled by a person in each new
incarnation. This way Socrates has given one of the proofs of soul immortality using the
concepts of Forms and knowledge as a recollection process.
An interesting paradox has been depicted in the Meno dialogue. Meno has asked Socrates
how was it possible that people sometimes look for something that they can’t even give a
definition. He has also questioned the validity of such answers because if we don’t know what
the truth is, how can we be sure that we got a correct answer. Plato has used this question to
introduce and explore the theory of recollection of knowledge which later led into the one of the
proofs of immortality of one’s soul. A answer to this question was that simple logic does not
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work here. A person who doesn’t know what he is searching for can not find it because he
doesn’t know what he wants to find. Socrates has also suggested that this is also impossible to
look for something you know, because you already know it (meno 70-78). This paradox of
inquiry was a starting point of a discussion with Meno’s slave, which gave birth to a Plato’s
theory of recollection of knowledge from current and previous lives.
This is now possible to say that the theory of knowledge as recollection, the separate
existence of the Forms, and the belief in the preexistence of the soul all stand together and may
not be separated. Socrates often uses one of these theories to support another. Meno Dialogue
may serve a perfect prologue to the Phaedo Dialogue because it discusses Forms and recollection
of knowledge, which allows proceeding directly to the proofs of soul’s immortality. Some of
these proofs are based on the theories of Forms and recollection.
As well as Forms may never change, soul, which always brings life, may never die
according to Plato, because it is the opposite of the death and that is the essence of the first proof
of soul’s immortality. The second proof is based on both Theory of Forms and Theory of
Recollection. As long as Socrates has proven that children possess some innate knowledge of
forms, it must be that they not learn it in this life, but recall it from previous experience in some
other incarnations. Therefore, according to Plato, soul must have lived previously, because
otherwise children will not be able to recall that innate knowledge of Forms. The last proof of
immortality of a soul also has to deal with the Theory of Forms. Socrates has suggested that the
soul by its nature participates in the Form of Life as well as all other things in our world
participate in some of the Forms. As long as Life is opposite to death and soul participates in this
Form, this means that it is immortal and may never die. This way this is possible to link all
together Theory of Forms, Theory of Recollection and proofs of soul’s immortality.
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Bibliography
Five Dialogues of Plato; translated by G.M.A. Grube.- Second Edition, 2002.