In Raphael’s “The School of Athens,” you can see philosophers talking in groups. In the middle of the painting are Plato and Aristotle. To the left is Socrates, their teacher. Socrates is in a heated discussion with some men who seem to be his students. We can’t tell exactly who each one is, but one person can be clearly identified. It’s him. This is Alcibiades. He was well known as a handsome general in Athens. It’s also said that he was in a romantic relationship with Socrates, who was also his teacher.

Socrates went out into the Agora of Athens and had discussions with people. But Socrates never taught his students anything. He just kept asking questions to his students. Why did he do that? That’s the story for today.

One day, Socrates was in a heated debate with Meno. The topic of the debate was, "Can we learn new knowledge?“ Meno’s argument went like this "If we have any knowledge, we don't have to look for something we already know, and if we don't have any knowledge, we can't look for it because we don't know what we don't know. It's essentially impossible to search for knowledge. This is called Meno’s paradox.

Then, Socrates says that we already have knowledge. Our souls already had knowledge even before we were born. However, we lost all that knowledge while crossing the River of Forgetfulness at birth. Therefore, he says that when we gain knowledge, we are just recollecting the knowledge we forgot at birth. Socrates says that even a slave boy who has never learned geometry already knows it.

Meno couldn't understand Socrates. How does a slave boy who has never learned geometry before know geometry?

свернуть