Epistemology Essay

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Plato’s View in Human Knowledge

Plato presents three different views about knowledge in Meno, Republic, and Theaetetus. In Meno’s case, Plato believes knowledge as something innate in us when we are born; in his later view, in Republic, Plato believes we perceive things and gain knowledge; and from the last view, in Theaetus, Plato believes knowledge is the combination of a true opinion and a rational opinion. Strangely enough, Plato’s views in Meno, Republic, and Theaetetus are similar, regarding the characteristics of knowledge. Despite that, Plato’s views in Meno, Republic, and Theaetetus have different degrees of weakness in developing his argument about knowledge.

The concrete characteristics of knowledge of Plato’s views in Meno, Republic, and Theaetetus are similar. According to Ron’s Palace,

there are two essential characteristics of the soul. First, knowledge must be certain and infallible. Second, knowledge must have as its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an appearance only. Because that which is fully real must, for Plato, be fixed, permanent, and unchanging, he identified the real with the ideal realm of being as opposed to the physical world of becoming (Internet).

Before we are born, our souls stay in the in invisible world and saw all the “Forms” of all things. The “Form”, according to Plato, is eternal, unchanging, and universal. In the dialogue between Socrates and Meno (slave boy), according to Moser’s book, Socrates mentions that

his soul must remain always possessed of this knowledge…. And if the truth of all things always exists in the soul, then the soul is immortal….and try to discover by recollection what you do not now know, or rather what you do not remember (Plato 42).

The knowledge alreadily has existed in us when we are born. By absorbing the information from the visible world into our minds, we then remember what we have forgotten in our previous existence. Since the knowledge in us is from the eternal and unchanging “Form”, the knowledge in us is unchanging and eternal. In similar to Plato’s view in Meno, Plato’s view in Republic has two categories of knowledge. He says “there are two ruling powers, and that one of them is set over the intellectual world, the other over the visible” (Plato 47). On that account, the knowledge we have is from both our perception and our intellectual world. What we perceive is not true and that is not knowledge. When we perceive something that comes in a pattern and has a principle, our reason will process into hypothesis by opinion and our soul will recognize that by reason (Plato 48). Mathematical formulas can be good examples in this argument because mathematical formulas are eternal and unchanging. For instance, before we recognize that “a²+b²=c²” as a hypothesis, we must have had experience of measuring a physical right triangle in order to make sure that hypothesis becomes true at all time. When the hypothesis is true, it then becomes knowledge. That is the procedure of the intellectual world. The intellectual world that is our knowledge is eternal and unchanging. In a similar way, the view in Theaetetus’s case, Plato believes that some true opinions or beliefs can be knowledge. In Theaetetus, Plato thinks knowledge is “right opinion with rational definition or explanation” (Plato 60). For instance, when we hold a true opinion about a right triangle formula, we need to justify that true opinion by our rationality; we know that it becomes knowledge if that formula works with all cases. As a result, that knowledge is unchanging and eternal and knowledge timelessly exists.

The difference of knowledge in Meno, Republic, and Theaetetus is the degree of weaknesses in developing the argument of finding out what 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,...

Jowett, B. The Dialogues of Plato Translated into English with Analyses and
Introductions. New York: MacMillan and Co, 1892.
Plato. “Meno.” “Republic.” and “Theatetus.” Eds. Paul K. Moser and Arnold vander
Nat. Human Knowledge Classical and Contemporary Approaches. New York:
Oxford University Press 1995.
“Ron’s Palace.” Feb 13 2000. You should cite this paper as follows:

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