Recollection as dialectical learning: Plato's epistemic response to the problem of the one and many

Seabright, Robert Glenn Gordon (2011) Recollection as dialectical learning: Plato's epistemic response to the problem of the one and many. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The problem of the one and many, epistemically, is how it is possible that we can know sensible particulars. Connected to this problem are the inductive and deductive methods, which Plato unsuccessfully employs in both his Laches and Meno as methods of acquiring knowledge. These failures culminate in Meno’s paradox, which challenges the possibility of inquiry itself. Plato’s response, the doctrine of recollection, states that we implicitly, or potentially, have knowledge, not in a manner that can be readily grasped, but instead through the activity of dialectic, it is possible to make that knowledge explicit or expressible. This method is demonstrated in the Meno when Socrates walks one of Meno’s slaves through a geometrical proof. Through the aid of Socrates as an epistemic midwife the boy is able to recollect the explicit knowledge that was absent at the beginning of their discussion, thus avoiding the problems that arise from strict induction and deduction.

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