Memory And Recollection Of The Soul

3 Pages 662 Words

Memory is mentioned in quite a few philosophical books and dialogues. It is a main theme in both Meno and Confessions of St. Augustine. Meno starts off contemplating virtue and whether it can be taught. This leads the dialogue to the subjects of learning and memory. Memory is also the focus of Book X in Confessions. Socrates asserts that learning is really the soul’s process of remembering what it knew before birth. St. Augustine’s and Socrates’ theories are fairy similar to each others and Plato’s.
Socrates believes in anamnesis; the idea that learning truth is really a matter of the soul recollecting what it has learned in previous lives. He often says that he knows he knows nothing, so this is a change because he seems to be very sure of this theory. He believes the soul is eternal and each time it is born it forgets everything it knows and must relearn it. When experiencing something, you are actually relearning what you already knew. He proves this is by asking a young servant of Meno’s geometrical questions. He draws a square and asks the boy if the lines are not equal and if a square can be any size. Socrates continues to ask the boy more complex questions. When he is satisfied, he presents this process to Meno as evidence that learning is in fact a recollection. If the boy was never taught this, how did he come to know the relationship between the diagonal of a square and a square double the area? Socrates concludes this point by adding “But if he has always possessed this knowledge he would always have known; or if he has acquired the knowledge he could not have acquired it in this life, unless he has been taught geometry and every other branch of knowledge. Now, as you say, he was born and bred in your house.” Meno admits that he is certain no one has ever taught the boy geometry. Meno is satisfied with Socrates explanation and even goes as far to call his worlds excellent.
Like Socrates, Augustine's answ...