The Platonic doctrine of recollection or anamnesis, is the idea that we are born possessing all knowledge and our realization of that knowledge is contingent on our discovery of it. Whether the doctrine should be taken literally or not is a subject of debate. The soul is trapped in the body. The soul once lived in "Reality", but got trapped in the body. It once knew everything, but forgot it. The goal of Recollection is to get back to true Knowledge. To do this, one must overcome the body. This doctrine implies that nothing is ever learned, it is simply recalled or remembered. In short it says that all that we know already comes pre-loaded on birth and our senses enable us to identify and recognize the stratified information in our mind.
Read more about this topic: Platonic Epistemology
Famous quotes containing the words platonic, doctrine and/or recollection:
“Ive arrived at the age where a platonic friendship can be sustained on the highest moral plane.”
—Charlie Chaplin (18891977)
“As if reasoning were any kind of writing or talking which tends to convince people that some doctrine or measure is true and right.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (18001878)
“The business eternally passing thro my mind and occupying it exclusively, wipes out at once the recollection of things which have been presented to it but once, and on which it has had no occasion to recur.”
—Thomas Jefferson (17431826)