Plato's Theory Of Knowledge In Chapter 3 Of Meno By Plato

Even if an individual were to be fairly uneducated in philosophy, they would surely know the name “Plato”. Socrates was the mentor of Plato, and Plato mentored Aristotle. He is said to be born around 428 BC and to have died around 348 BC. Plato developed his own epistemology, which is defined as “the study of knowledge”. Plato’s epistemology consists of three questions, which are; “What is knowledge? How do we obtain knowledge? And what justifies a belief and makes it knowledge?” (np). Plato does believe that knowledge is possible, however he believes that knowledge is innate, meaning that individuals are born with it. Therefore knowledge is not necessarily obtained but “unlocked”. In Chapter 3 of Meno, Socrates argues against Meno that …show more content…
For example all items have an essence in which humans can identify. If a boy was shown a horse and a flower he would be able to differentiate the two. This isn’t to be confused, with linguistics, but rather as an ability to identify something as what it is. The theory of form is essentially saying that there is an alternative world of ideas which the human mind uses to identify things in the current world. Say there is soccer ball, the soccer ball has the form of a circle. If a soccer ball became a pyramid it would no longer be a soccer ball. Therefore “roundness” is a form which makes up a soccer ball. This ties into Plato’s theory of …show more content…
To start, I believe that all material objects can be defined in some way by a form. An example which comes to mind is that of a chair. Say we define a chair as a seat with a back and legs. Anything with those forms is a chair. A chair with a seat, legs, and no back is not longer a chair, but a stool. While many things other than a chair can be used as a seat. They are just that, a seat, but not a chair. A chair in the United States, can be sent to China, and it is still a chair. Sure, It may be called something else, but it is still what it is. A non-material example discussed in class was justice. While what is considered just, may vary across different cultures, justice itself has the same universality of being based on what is considered moral. One could make the counterargument for relativity that beauty is relative. For example while I consider cheap beer, surfing, and Selena Gomez to be beautiful. One could say that someone else would consider other things entirely to be beautiful. Therefore what is beautiful is relative. However that argument does not comprehend the universality notion correctly. While “what we consider” to be beautiful may differ, the form of beauty remains the same as something that would be considered pleasing. I do admit that this universality notion may be a bit difficult to comprehend. This is because to truly understand it, you must forget about ones personal ideas, step back and try