separates from the body and goes through an eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. In its endless
transmigration or cycle from life to death and death to life when it enters the body of a new person
upon being born, the soul has contemplated and therefore learned all things, which it can then
recollect when questioned in the right way.
Socrates’discussion of recollection in theMenois thus very similar to his discussion of recol-
lection, as a demonstration of the immortality of the soul, in thePhaedo.In this latter dialog
Socrates argues that when we sense two equal things in this world, such as two equal sticks and
stones, if we think about them in the right way we are reminded of the“Equal Itself,”or the idea or
form of the Equal (Phaedo, 74a–b).^12 This same process of recollection holds for all of the ideas or
Forms; whenever we consider particular manifestations of a thing in this world, such as particular
manifestations of beauty, if we contemplate them correctly we are reminded of the universal
classification, such as the idea or Form beauty itself that groups the particulars into a class (Phaedo,
75d).^13 The knowledge in the soul, therefore, that the learner recollects, is knowledge of the
universal ideas or Forms.
But, where did we get this knowledge of the ideas or Forms such that we can be reminded of them
when considering their particular manifestations? Socrates concludes that the soul must have
acquired knowledge of them before we were born, and then“forgot”this knowledge when entering
our body upon birth.^14 This shows that the soul, thinking the universal ideas, must exist separate
from the body prior to birth, and that the process of recollecting, in this case aided through the senses
but in theMenothrough Socratic questioning about the idea, entails overcoming the inhibiting
factors of the body after birth (Phaedo, 75c–d).
If thePhaedosuggests that learning is the soul’s recollection of the ideas that it had contemplated
while separated from the body, Socrates in theMenogoes further saying that,“the whole of nature is
akin,”or related. Thus, when the soul recollects one thing it can recollect all things, as all things are
the same in some way. The image here is that all things in thecosmos, both material and immaterial,
share some universal characteristic in common that makes them the same; there is one universal
being or essence, one idea, uniting all things.^15 It is, moreover, a sweeping claim for knowledge in
the soul, which seems to be opposed to the purpose of the ideas in the first part of the dialog, which is
to give us knowledge of our own ignorance.
Socrates’turn to the theory of recollection in theMenoappears to resolve the problem of
learning that arises after Meno fails in his attempts to define virtue. This impasse is a result of
Socrates’dialectical method of refutation that relies onasking his interlocutor to tell him what the
idea or common characteristic of virtue is. Yet, although apparently resolving the impasse and
allowing the conversation to continue, bringing inthe theory of recollection seems problematic in
two key ways.
First, in the dialectical part of the dialog, in which Meno cannot satisfy Socrates’request for the
idea of virtue, the purpose of Socratic questioning, as in theApologyand understood as technique, is
to lead Meno to knowledge of his own ignorance and an understanding of the human condition as
that of non-knowers who think we know. Socrates, in other words, teaches Meno and us that we
don’t know what we think we know and hence that the truth is not within us. Yet when the dialog
turns to recollection, it appears that the purpose of Socratic questioning, understood as a pathway to
discovery, is to lead Meno to knowledge of his prior knowledge as he recollects universal truths or
ideas that are already within him, and he and we come to understand the human condition as that of
knowers who don’t know we know. Socrates thus teaches that we all in fact have the truth within us
but have forgotten that this is the case.
The purposes of Socratic refutation and Socraticrecollection seem irreconcilable. However, if
we consider theApologyand the two parts of theMenotogether, perhaps the teaching is as
follows. Socratesfirst encounterspersonssuchasMenowho areignorant butdon’tknowthis.His
questioning concerning the ideas, such as the idea of virtue, teaches them that they don’tknow
what they thought they know, and in acquiring such knowledge of their ignorance Socrates’
54 Ann Ward