Coursework Part B
What, according to Socrates, does the example of the slave boy in ‘Meno’ tell us about knowledge? What do you think that it shows?
The example of the slave boy serves to demonstrate Socrates’s infamous claim that ‘all learning is recollection’. Around the time that Plato was writing, there was a common view among philosophers and academics that if you know what you are looking for, enquiry is unnecessary, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, then enquiry is impossible. The first premise of the enquiry seems self-explanatory; if you already know something, then there is no point in trying to find it, but the second focuses on the idea that if you’re trying to find something, then you won’t be able to do so unless …show more content…
Through it he denies that we ever truly learn new knowledge, which is an entirely plausible concept to Plato as he argues for the immortality of the soul.
In ‘Meno’, Meno asks Socrates if he can prove the truth of his claim that learning is nothing more than recollecting what we already know, so Socrates responds by calling over a slave boy and, after establishing that the boy has never received any mathematical training of any kind, Socrates sets him a geometry problem, in which the boy is asked to double the area of a square. The boy tries numerous ways to solve the problem, at first answering that in order to solve the problem you should double the lengths of the sides, then when discovering that this is incorrect, the he continues to offer more suggestions, until eventually he gives up, and believes that he is not capable of solving the problem. After these attempts, Socrates then guides him to the correct answer through using simply worded questions seemingly allows the boy to come to the correct answer …show more content…
In particular, Mathematics is thought to be an example of this sort of knowledge. Mathematicians don't arrive at theorems through empirical means, in fact many, if not all are actually established through the process of reasoning. Socrates may display and defend his theory through the slave boy and the geometry problem, but immediately it becomes somewhat obvious that the mathematical truth shown is universally true. It applies to every existing square and any square that may exist in the future. So, indeed Socrates may certainly seem to be guiding the boy with leading questions, but it is entirely plausible that the example could be used to demonstrate, or even prove that human beings possess some form of a priori knowledge. The slave boy may not have been immediately able to come up with the correct answer without help or guidance; but the slave boy is able to recognize the truth of the geometric answer and the universally, and perhaps eternally valid mathematical process that lead him to it. Therefore, he isn't simply repeating something he has been taught, or being manipulated into giving the right answer, but is quite possibly drawing on not necessarily his, but universal mathematical truths that we know to exist a
What, according to Socrates, does the example of the slave boy in ‘Meno’ tell us about knowledge? What do you think that it shows?
The example of the slave boy serves to demonstrate Socrates’s infamous claim that ‘all learning is recollection’. Around the time that Plato was writing, there was a common view among philosophers and academics that if you know what you are looking for, enquiry is unnecessary, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, then enquiry is impossible. The first premise of the enquiry seems self-explanatory; if you already know something, then there is no point in trying to find it, but the second focuses on the idea that if you’re trying to find something, then you won’t be able to do so unless …show more content…
Through it he denies that we ever truly learn new knowledge, which is an entirely plausible concept to Plato as he argues for the immortality of the soul.
In ‘Meno’, Meno asks Socrates if he can prove the truth of his claim that learning is nothing more than recollecting what we already know, so Socrates responds by calling over a slave boy and, after establishing that the boy has never received any mathematical training of any kind, Socrates sets him a geometry problem, in which the boy is asked to double the area of a square. The boy tries numerous ways to solve the problem, at first answering that in order to solve the problem you should double the lengths of the sides, then when discovering that this is incorrect, the he continues to offer more suggestions, until eventually he gives up, and believes that he is not capable of solving the problem. After these attempts, Socrates then guides him to the correct answer through using simply worded questions seemingly allows the boy to come to the correct answer …show more content…
In particular, Mathematics is thought to be an example of this sort of knowledge. Mathematicians don't arrive at theorems through empirical means, in fact many, if not all are actually established through the process of reasoning. Socrates may display and defend his theory through the slave boy and the geometry problem, but immediately it becomes somewhat obvious that the mathematical truth shown is universally true. It applies to every existing square and any square that may exist in the future. So, indeed Socrates may certainly seem to be guiding the boy with leading questions, but it is entirely plausible that the example could be used to demonstrate, or even prove that human beings possess some form of a priori knowledge. The slave boy may not have been immediately able to come up with the correct answer without help or guidance; but the slave boy is able to recognize the truth of the geometric answer and the universally, and perhaps eternally valid mathematical process that lead him to it. Therefore, he isn't simply repeating something he has been taught, or being manipulated into giving the right answer, but is quite possibly drawing on not necessarily his, but universal mathematical truths that we know to exist a