Learning and inquiry › Socrates' Response: Recollection

Socrates calls the dilemma a contentious argument. He counters it by reporting an account associated with priests, priestesses, and poets: the soul survives death, has been born repeatedly, and has learned everything. Because nature is interconnected, recovering one thing can lead a diligent inquirer toward others. On this account, inquiry and learning are recollection, or anamnesis (81a–e).

There are two commitments here. The metaphysical claim concerns a soul with a history beyond its present embodied life. The account of learning explains intellectual discovery as recovering what that soul already possesses. Reducing recollection to the ordinary experience of remembering a forgotten appointment would miss the scope of the proposal. Socrates is explaining how we can come to understand something we do not remember ever being taught.

The proposal also serves a practical purpose within the argument. Socrates contrasts the inactivity encouraged by surrendering to the dilemma with the effort encouraged by recollection. That benefit would not by itself establish the theory's truth. It explains why he wants to show Meno that inquiry remains possible rather than leave their conversation at an impasse.