The question of what humanity knows and is capable of knowing has been pondered by many of the most influential minds in human history humanity. One such thinker was Plato, author of many influential dialogues during his time on earth. Plato was mentored by the philosopher Socrates, who was executed by the Athenian government in 399 BC for "corrupting the youth" with his teachings. This injustice affected Plato so much that he began to pursue a career as a philosopher, making it his mission to immortalize Socrates in written form. One of Socrates' most (in)famous ideas was that no one really "knows" anything; he made it his duty to constantly question “every assumption concerning virtue, wisdom, and the good life” (Socrates 1). The argument that a person's knowledge is never complete can be strengthened by the geometric experiment of the slave child and the allegories of the line and the cave, introduced by Plato in Meno and Republic respectively. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Plato's Meno, the main problem is attempting to define virtue, which is an ultimately unsuccessful attempt in the text. However, the dialogue between Meno and Socrates has deeper themes than simply the inquiry into what virtue is; it provides insight into what knowledge is – according to Plato – and how it develops. Plato seems to subscribe to the idea of ​​reincarnation, but this doctrine is not entirely literal. In Meno, Socrates performs what is called the geometric/slave experiment, in response to Meno's paradox, that if one knows what one is looking for, there is no reason to seek knowledge, but if one does not know, then they cannot seek knowledge. Socrates calls this a “debater's argument” and begins the experiment to counter this dilemma (Meno 80e). Since the Slave Boy/Geometric experiment is difficult to describe without the aid of drawings, I will only give a brief description of it in this essay before beginning to analyze its meaning. The main points of the experience are as follows. Socrates gives birth to a young slave and draws a square with an area of ​​4 feet divided into 4 equal sections. He then asks the question: "What would be the length of each side of a square with twice the area (8 feet) of this square?" » The slave boy is perplexed at first, but Socrates guides him through the process without explicitly telling him the answer until they arrive at the answer. Socrates concludes that since the slave boy had no formal training in geometry, but understood the concepts and was able to find the correct answer, he must have known these concepts in a previous life (Meno 82c-85e). However, this statement should not be interpreted literally, as Plato's idea of ​​reincarnation is best explained in the Theory of Remembrance, which follows the Allegory of the Line. The idea behind Memory Theory is that "forms" constitute reality, and we all have exposure and understanding of these forms before we are born, but (in a sense) forget everything at birth and have to "remember » our knowledge. Ergo, learning is memory, and memory must be sought – according to Plato. The Allegory of the Line shows Socrates drawing another diagram, but in this case it is a line divided into 4 unequal parts. Each section of the line represents a different level of knowledge, with each subsequent section requiring the existence of the previous one. The sections are - by order of