by Michele Langlo

Created on: September 27, 2009

"And if the truth of all things always existed in the soul, then the soul is immortal. Wherefore be of good cheer, and try to recollect what you do not know or rather what you do not remember." Socrates

Were we born with and do we now possess all knowledge but yet we are not all knowing? Is it that we must be awakened to this our knowledge possessed but not perceived to recollect certain answers to questions from a time when we were not yet born? This is what Socrates seems to suggest while asking certain geometry questions to a young Greek boy who was an attendant to fellow philosopher Meno. It was Socrates quest to demonstrate to Meno that the boy who at first seemed not to know geometry at all in fact possessed all knowledge of geometry and all other things.

As Socrates navigates through a series of questions Meno's attendant answers each one with a correct response, ultimately arriving at the final solution without ever being told what it was. At that moment Socrates' summation to Meno is that he has not taught the boy anything he only asked questions and the young attendant possessed the knowledge all along.

When one examines this theory closely enough it is easy to find Socrates to have points of true validity in this case. It has been said that the average human only uses ten percent of the full capacity of total brain function. If we were to tap into the total brain potential, what might we really know and accomplish?

How is it there are certain people who from very early ages have always been able to give instant answers to very complicated mathematical equations without the aid of a calculator or any other such technology but it is as if those answers were always there?

There are many such instances in life that would seem to support Socrates' theory. Obviously his rationale was extraordinary. But was he a realist?

This demonstration was done in the midst of a discussion between Socrates and Meno, which explores the question of, is virtue learned or is it something we simply are equipped with from the time of our birth. Socrates then asked the definition of virtue which Meno stumbles on at first and then suggests that there is not simply one virtue there are many. The two men go on to discuss examples of virtues such as temperance, holiness, courage, quickness of apprehension and the like. Meno actually suggests that the possession of material goods is a virtue. And then Socrates asks a question to which neither man seems to be able to fully answer.

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