blog section 1

Plato explains that when we believe we are learning something, we are actually remembering something we have learned in another lifetime. The idea is that e don’t learn, we remember. The example he gives is one with the boy and the mathematics problem best demonstrates how this could be possible. The boy is uneducated and is asked a problem relating to the are of a box. Instead of telling the boy how to double the area of the square, he lets the boy teach himself. Through asking the right questions to the boy, the boy finds the answer on his own. The boy did not know the answer when first asked but through questioning he came up with the correct answer. This demonstrates that the knowledge is actually inside of him. Plato argues that we do not learn things, instead we remember them. Plato says that this knowledge is already inside of us, we gain this knowledge in our previous lives. Over our many lives and experiences we become wiser. Plato says this is true because individuals can come up with the answers to questions on their own, in fields they know nothing about. How else would this be possible? He proposes the answer to where our instincts and innate feelings come from. Also one can not prove that these previous lives did not occur, there is no way of knowing that.