GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

434
ing of it is a rediscovery
already.
ETHICS
of what was in some sense known
That Learning is a Process of Rediscovery. This is
brought out by a celebrated illustration in the Dialogue
called the Meno y where Socrates cross-examines a slave in
order to throw light upon* the nature of his knowledge of
mathematical propositions. The slave is placed before the
figure of a square, and Socrates proceeds to question him
as to the nature of the square whose area is double that
of the original square. Can he, for example, give any
information about the side of this double square? The
slave is at first at a loss, and makes a number of false
suggestions. He suggests, for example, that the side of the
double square is double the side of the original square,
but in due course sees his error from "the nature of the
thing itself", that is to say, from a simple inspection of
the geometrical figure. Finally, he perceives in the diagonal
of the given square the side of the double square which he is
seeking. He sees this suddenly and he sees it for himself;
Socrates does not, that is to say*, tell him the answer.
Socrates's r61e is that of a cross-examiner whose object
is to turn the attention of the examinee in the direction
of an answer which he must see for himself or not at all.
Evidently, therefore, Socrates concludes, the slave had in
himself as an original possession the knowledge of which he
is suddenly made conscious. Thus " teaching" is a process
of directing the attention of the pupil to what he already
knows. The teacher does not impart information to the
pupil. He merely enables the pupil to convince himself of
something which he sees for himself. Similarly, learning is a
process by which the soul becomes re-acquainted .with what
it already knows, or knows, but has forgotten that it knows.
Learning, then, is the apprehension of inborn knowledge. It
is "to recover of oneself knowledge from within oneself".
The Pre-History of the Soul. Only on the assumption
that learning is "a recovery of inborn knowledge"