Socrates_&_Knowledge

Socrates & Knowledge His/105 October 23, 2013 Christopher Allen Socrates & Knowledge Socrates was one of the first intellectuals in human history. When most people think about the word “knowledge” they take it to mean something individual obtain through education or things they have encounter in life, but is there a deeper meaning to this word. “Knowledge” is something that people believe they already have embedded deep down inside of them. Socrates understood that a person cannot come to know something when they do not have the “knowledge” first hand of what they are supposed to be looking for. His belief was that learning did not entirely come from discoveries, but instead that it comes from a person soul, which began long before inception. Socrates firmly believed that our memory of “knowledge” is hidden deep down inside each of us, but we keep it suppressed until something occurs in our life that allows that “knowledge” to resurface. To prove Socrates point he had to come up with a good idea. His idea was to use one of Meno’s young boy/slave that had no previous teaching or given any lesson in geometry and he decided to do this he started off drawing a square in the sand. Each side of the square that he drew was approximately two feet. Socrates asked the young boy/slave to calculate how long the square would be if he doubled the area of the previous one. The young boy/slave made some attempts his first response was four, then he changed it to three but each time he was still wrong. Socrates decided the young boy/slave needed help to have a better understanding that the square consisted of double the area and would have sides where there length would be equal to the diagonal of the square that they had been discussing. This still didn’t give the young boy/slave the proper way to come up with the correct answer for the problem. At this point Socrates decided that the best way for the young boy/slave to understand was to have him really concentrate and to really think the problem through to the end by himself. The example provided by Socrates gave the young boy/slave the proof and courage he needed that he could solve the problem without any direction from Socrates or anyone. As you can see by the example given by Socrates this was his way of proving that individuals can suppress their “knowledge” about certain things that occurs in their life. Concerning Socrates idea after reading and researching I would have to say that I agree with his point to a certain extinct. This is where free will comes into play and everyone is entitled to their own decision. For some this would not be an easy point to prove just by looking at the fact because the situation could differ based on the person opinion and the decision that a person make. I honestly think that Socrates was right everyone is born with “knowledge” they are not aware of it because they are so young and their brain is not fully developed. It has been said that the more you teach a child when they are young the more they want to learn. If there was one question that I could ask Socrates about his theory it would be: If you asked the appropriate question, provide the pertinent data for the subject at hand then why couldn’t someone come up the correct answer no matter how complex you make the question' Looking over the question that Socrates asked the young boy/slave or anyone with a little common knowledge could answer them. Socrates was a beneficial teacher he set out to prove that people were born with “knowledge” and was not aware of it. He took a young boy/slave that had no previous schooling or knew nothing about math. Presented him with a geometry problem and eventually the young boy/slave through time, patience, and really concentrating and thinking he could figure out the right answer on his own. This is still true today if you really take the time to figure something out then you will find an answer or solution. Reference Page: Moore, B. N., & Bruder, K. (2011) Philosophy: The Power Of Ideas. (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.