Phaedo By Socrates And The Theory Of Recollection

In Phaedo, Socrates claims, in his second argument, that learning is essentially the art of recollecting things we knew before we were born. He goes on to give a definition of recollection, that states that true knowledge is found in the eternal forms that exists outside of perceptible reality. Socrates insists that the process of recollection works in a way that if you see a “lyre” or an article of clothing of a beloved, you will immediately be reminded of whose lyre or clothing it belongs to. Socrates believes that the only true knowledge that we can have is knowledge of the forms. If we know Equality, Good, Beauty and the other forms, then our understanding of the sensible world would run through these forms. However, Simmias and Cebes are still …show more content…
He claims that the only knowledge can acquire is from us recollecting what are souls knew, of the Forms, before we were born. They do this by seeing something, such as two sticks that are almost equal, but are not exactly equal because we have knowledge of true equality in the Equality Form. He believes that the our souls are divine and that are bodys are human, and by them coexisting together the divine soul is confused and the knowledge we receive from the mortal body should not be trusted. However, multiple flaws can be seen in his arguments. The way that although two sticks might not be equal, one stick in itself can be equal just as how the Form of Equality is believed to be equal. Socrates also shows that he does not believe in empirical knowledge, which makes up a lot of knowledge that we have. By doing so he is weakening his argument for the immortality of the soul because he is only paying attention to the knowledge that he believes exists. Although Socrates makes very interesting claims in his Theory of Recollection for the immortality of the soul, they are not strong enough for me to find his argument