Knowledge as Recollection: (i) Narration (81a10–82a6)

Abstract

In the last decade or so a number of attempts have been made to demythologize Plato’s doctrine of anamnēsis. I propose to examine the most noteworthy of these. The method I adopt is not unlike Plato’s own. No attempt will be made to engage in criticism for criticism’s sake. The views are canvassed in order to preserve their strengths as much as to indicate their limitations. A serious effort is made to carry forward whatever is valid in the earlier accounts and to incorporate it into the final, albeit tentative, position outlined. While each of the views considered is worth examining in its own right, their value is, I believe, greatly increased when considered in relation to one another. The final position towards which this section moves is schematic and in many ways problematic. But it does have promise. Subsequent study will, I hope, result in a “fleshing-out” of the skeletal character in which it presently appears.