Key Arguments

• Socrates claims to have heard from “priests and priestesses” and inspired poets like Pindar that “the soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is termed dying, and at another time is born again, but is never destroyed.”
• He explains that, having been “born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, [the soul] has knowledge of them all.”
• Given that “all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all things,” he argues there is “no difficulty in her eliciting or as men say learning, out of a single recollection all the rest, if a man is strenuous and does not faint.”
• On this basis he asserts the thesis: “all enquiry and all learning is but recollection,” thereby dissolving the paradox’s assumption that inquiry proceeds from complete ignorance.
• He explicitly opposes the paradox as a “sophistical argument about the impossibility of enquiry” which “will make us idle; and is sweet only to the sluggard,” whereas the recollection doctrine “will make us active and inquisitive.”
• He adds a moral “moral”: because the soul is immortal and faces recompense—Persephone “sends the souls of those from whom she has received the penalty of ancient crime back again”—“a man ought to live always in perfect holiness,” linking the epistemological view to ethical exhortation.

Source Quotes

SOCRATES: Some of them were priests and priestesses, who had studied how they might be able to give a reason of their profession: there have been poets also, who spoke of these things by inspiration, like Pindar, and many others who were inspired. And they say—mark, now, and see whether their words are true—they say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is termed dying, and at another time is born again, but is never destroyed. And the moral is, that a man ought to live always in perfect holiness.

'For in the ninth year Persephone sends the souls of those from whom she has received the penalty of ancient crime back again from beneath into the light of the sun above, and these are they who become noble kings and mighty men and great in wisdom and are called saintly heroes in after ages.' The soul, then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all; and it is no wonder that she should be able to call to remembrance all that she ever knew about virtue, and about everything; for as all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all things; there is no difficulty in her eliciting or as men say learning, out of a single recollection all the rest, if a man is strenuous and does not faint; for all enquiry and all learning is but recollection. And therefore we ought not to listen to this sophistical argument about the impossibility of enquiry: for it will make us idle; and is sweet only to the sluggard; but the other saying will make us active and inquisitive.

The soul, then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all; and it is no wonder that she should be able to call to remembrance all that she ever knew about virtue, and about everything; for as all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all things; there is no difficulty in her eliciting or as men say learning, out of a single recollection all the rest, if a man is strenuous and does not faint; for all enquiry and all learning is but recollection. And therefore we ought not to listen to this sophistical argument about the impossibility of enquiry: for it will make us idle; and is sweet only to the sluggard; but the other saying will make us active and inquisitive. In that confiding, I will gladly enquire with you into the nature of virtue.

Key Concepts

• they say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is termed dying, and at another time is born again, but is never destroyed.
• The soul, then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all;
• for as all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all things; there is no difficulty in her eliciting or as men say learning, out of a single recollection all the rest, if a man is strenuous and does not faint;
• for all enquiry and all learning is but recollection.
• we ought not to listen to this sophistical argument about the impossibility of enquiry: for it will make us idle; and is sweet only to the sluggard; but the other saying will make us active and inquisitive.

Context

Responding directly to Meno’s paradox, Socrates introduces the immortality and reincarnation of the soul and the theory of recollection as a way to show that inquiry is possible and morally significant; this marks a transition from purely elenctic discussion to a more constructive metaphysical doctrine.