Plato’s Doctrine of Recollection

Plato’s doctrine of recollection is a set of three hypotheses about knowledge and the human soul. The first hypothesis states that human beings attain knowledge by recalling innate information concealed in their souls. Secondly, Plato claimed that a soul is immortal and cannot be annihilated, but it shifts from one body to another when one dies. According to Platonists, the transmigration process does not take place instantly because the soul lives in the underworld for some time before being acquired by another body (Franklin 2). During this process, it is assumed that the soul may forget some information but cannot lose everything it had encountered in its earlier worlds. Lastly, the third hypothesis states that the soul always inhabits the knowledge it acquired during its previous existence. In this paper, I will give an interpretation of Plato’s doctrine of recollection and defend it against critics.

The theory of recollection emanated from Socrates and Meno’s discussion on virtue. At the initial phases of the dialogue, Meno was quoted …click below to purchase the full answer at $20