The argument against the theory of recollection stated above is a good one, if a man doesn't learn new things but merely remembers knowledge from a previous life where did he get the knowledge in te previous life or the previous life before that?Perhaps what Plato/Socrates is arguing is not that 'propositional' knowledge like geometrical theories is being learnt but rather Plato is showing that it is the ability to learn geometrical ideas (the capacity for knowledge) that is innate. The ability to do mathematics is something most of us are born with and in one way isn't taught. Although this ability isn't remembered in any sense of the term 'remember' that we use today.
- 12/04/2006
- 12:20:11
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The labelling of this essay's premises is confusing. For the original (?) go tohttp://www.aarweb.org/syllabus/syllabi/c/cohen/phil320/menopar.htmOr type Meno's paradox into google (its your first hit)
- 12/04/2006
- 11:56:19
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A response to Plato's allegory of the cave with no reference to the forms is a limited response I'm afraid. Perception whether it is of the shadows on the cave wall or what 'we' see everyday is critcised by Plato because it is a reality that is always changing (changability being equated with unreality to some extent by plato). Whereas rational understanding discovers the essense of things, or the unity in diversity. We can see many horses or many goods but until we think (rather than merely perceive or see) what is common to all we begin to relise the true nature of these things. Horses come in different sizes and shapes, breeds and colours but there is something the same about all horses something like the form of a horse.
- 12/04/2006
- 10:59:31
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(Trotsky)"According to the media ...was no Leninist (Stalin's new form of Marxism), but the father of "Trotskyism."To say Leninism was "STalin's new form of Marxism" is confusing. Stalin created Stalinism. As this essay states he claimed to follow LEnin's ideas. Yet Stalinist occurances such as 'Socialism in one country' (rather than internationalism)and 'The Great Terror' (where the 'vanguard' of fellow bolsheviks were purged) are incompatiable with Leninist doctrine.Leninism may lead to Stalinism. But Leninism is not Stalin's and in many fundamental ways distinct from Stalinism- Trotsky argued this at the time.
- 07/03/2005
- 15:58:27
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