circumspect but effective (practically speaking) with the unpromising Euthypro, and more deeply
engaged with the more noble souls of Glaucon and Adeimantus. It is also worth noting that none of
the Platonic dialogs exhibits a conversation between philosophers, which suggests that the Socratic
method is appropriate to people at all stages of their education toward wisdom and virtue.
We see that Socrates relies heavily on a dialogical form of education. This form, including the
exchange of question-and-answer most commonly associated with the Socratic method, could be
extracted from their Platonic context and employed productively in various educational contexts
(as they commonly are, for example, in law schools). In Plato’s works, however, their full meaning
and significance are found only in their connection to his understanding of education and phil-
osophy as a whole. The Socratic method in Plato is meant to awaken students to their participation
in eternal reason and encourage them to develop their reason both theoretically and practically as
they turn toward a life devoted to wisdom and virtue. Moreover, it is necessary in this context
because of the nature of both human existence and the knowledge that is sought. Plato attempts to
communicate this understanding of education by referring to it asanamnesis: a process of
remembrance or recollection.
Socrates discusses recollection most extensively in theMenoand thePhaedo, but elements of the
account are present in many other dialogs as well, including thePhaedrusand theRepublic. The
idea of recollection is meant to communicate the experience that human beings are capable of
rational knowledge that transcends empirical reality such as mathematical concepts and ethical
universals. Because this knowledge is not derivable from experience (there are no empirical
examples of a perfect circle or perfect justice), it seems that students already possess (if inchoately)
knowledge of such things–otherwise, how could anyone acquire such knowledge? In theMeno,
Socrates references Pindar and“others of the divine among our poets”to offer the following
mythological account of the idea:
Theysaythatthehumansoulisimmortal;attimesitcomestoanend,whichtheycalldying,
at times it is reborn, but it is never destroyed, and one must therefore live one’s life as piously
as possible:::. As the soul is immortal, has been born often and has seen all things here and
in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned; so it is in no way surprising
that it can recollect the things it knew before, both about virtue and other things. As the
whole of nature is akin, and the soul has learned everything, nothing prevents a man, after
recalling one thing only–a process men call learning–discovering everything else for
himself, if he is brave and does not tire of the search, for searching and learning are, as a
whole, recollection.^3Many scholars claim that Plato has a“doctrine”or“theory”of recollection, but it is surely sig-
nificant that Socrates turns to poetic authorities to encapsulate his view. Plato often uses poetry and
myth in his dialogs, and it is almost certain that he uses them in a non-literal fashion to communicate
insights into realities that cannot be reduced to discursive rational accounts.^4
Thus, it is open to question whether he held to“the thesis that the immortal soul, in a disembodied
state prior to its incarceration in a body, viewed these Forms, knowledge of which is then recalled by
incarcerated souls through a laborious process”as one contemporary scholar defines the“doctrine
of recollection.”^5 It is more likely that Plato uses poetry in this case to call our attention to, and
explore the parameters of, a certain kind of educational experience that he cannot simply explain
dialectically because it deals with human participation in transcendent reality. The teacher is like a
midwife (as Socrates sometimes calls himself), because he draws knowledge out of the student that
must already be inchoately present in the mind (because it cannot be derived from empirical
experience).
Socrates picks up on this idea in theRepublicas well, where he also stresses the moral dimension
of Socratic education (which is mentioned in theMenopassage quoted above as well). Cultivating
The Socratic Method in Plato and Kant 61