Page 13 - GALIET THE BEAUTIFUL INNATE: Meno & Theatetus Plato IV

Galiet & Galiet
know what he does not know. In one way, it is not possible since it leads to a contradiction. The slave cannot both know, and not know the same thing. In another way, it is certainly feasible. The slave can certainly grasp the questions though not the answers fully.
All in all, the method of inquiry seems manipulative and detrimental to his theory. It casts a spell of doubt on whether things can be apprehended innately or not and whether the soul is immortal. Could this be, however, a misinterpretation? Plato feels confident he has proved something to be innate such as propositions, ideas and capacities. Given his theory, propositions dwell unnoticed in the soul simply waiting to be awakened. Recollection in this sense means that a-priori propositions are innate. Ideas or the Forms such as evenness and oddness are also a-priori rather than a-posteriori. Recollection in this sense means that a-priori ideas are held prior to experience. Capacities such as thinking, or reasoning are also a-priori. Humans possess the innate ability to deduce logical conclusions of their beliefs from experience. In this sense, recollection means innate knowledge.
Interestingly, as part of this discussion on recollection, it is important to enquiry further into Chomsky’s theory of innate language acquisition, into why humans appear to have an innate sense of perfection (evident in best works of art and architecture or as the Greeks called it: techne) 3⁄4 whether this sense or instinct is biological or related to the Forms 3⁄4 and whether the classical notion of anamnesis is related to Mnemosyne and her daughters, the Muses, the heiresses of memory. If the latter were linked, Plato’s Theories of Recollection and Immortality of the Soul would appear to have a stronger mythological rather than rational element. Maybe this is why in his last hours he celebrates Apollo!
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