hat knowledge is. In Meno case, Plato proves his recollection argument by constantly asking questions and explaining geometrical space of a square to a slave, Meno, who has no mathematical background whatsoever. In a mean while Plato thinks, “There is no teaching, but only recollection” (Plato 39). With a series of simple geometrical diagrams and questions from Socrates, Plato asks Meno is able to make basic conclusion of each question. The method proves that Meno “must have had and learned” the notions “at some other times” (Plato 42). In other words, Meno knowledge can be recollected and learned by “putting questions to him” (Plato 42) and Plato states that our soul “must remain possessed …knowledge” (Plato 42). The idea of what we know about knowledge is too general which is hard to define knowledge; thus, that is the weakness of Plato’s view in Meno’s case. In distinction to Meno’s case, in the Republic Plato develops a narrower conception of knowledge. Plato believes that the knowledge and perception are the same because “the soul perceives and understands” (Plato 46). When we perceive things by our senses we achieve knowledge; so each of our senses uniquely functions in its own nature. For instance, the object, such as color, belongs to the faculty of sight by the light (Plato 46). According to Jowett, “general ideas are perceived by the mind alone without the help of the senses” (246); “The senses perceive objects of sense, but the mind alone can compare them” and “sensations are given at birth, but truth and being, which are essential to knowledge, are acquired by reflection later on” (247). That is the weakness of this argument in Plato’s view in; we do not gain knowledge unless we think and rationalize. However, in Theaetetus’s case, Plato proposes a different aspect of k...
