想起の対象としての想起説 : 『メノン』と『パイドン』における想起説証明の位置づけ

抄録

Does the demonstration of recollection with the slave boy in the Meno really constitute the proof of recollection thesis? Socrates seems there to be asking leading questions I take it that Plato intended to make it uncertain whether the boy is really recollecting his second denial of knowledge 'ou manthano' (85A4-5) can mean 'I am not learning', suggesting that he is not recollecting We can never know the truth about his learning, because the demonstration is a Gorgian type of epideixis (81B1-2), which produces only persuasion However, it is one thing to know whether the boy is recollecting, and quite another to know whether learning is recollection The demonstration is meant to make Meno recollect the latter truth (81E6-82A3) Throughout the demonstration Socrates addresses questions to Meno, thereby making him consider whether the boy is really recollecting (82B6-7, E12-3, 84A3-4, C10-D1) Socrates' remark after the demonstration is that Meno knows that the boy will regain knowledge (85C9-D1), which means that Meno has been successfully made to recollect that recollection thesis is correct According to Cebes' explanation in the Phaedo (73A7-B2), recollection is helped by the use of proper questions and diagrams, and according to the Republic (510D5-511A1, 529D7-530A), mathematicians should not seek truth in diagrams or models made by such masters as Daedalus, but make use of them simply as images The boy's learning is a beautiful image of true learning created by Socrates, an offspring of Daedalus We should not seek truth concerning learning in this image, but make use of it to find truth about true learning Socrates' proper questions with the help of this image made Meno recollect that learning is recollection However, inquirers are rather misled by perceptual images when the object of inquiry has no lustre in its earthly image(Phaedrus 250B), as is the case with virtues, knowledge, education and learning In order to establish that learning is recollection, it is then necessary to have recourse to another kind of proof, in which one relies on rational thinking Plato embarks on this task in the Phaedo Recollection itself can be taken to be an image or metaphor (eikon) of learning, presented by Socrates, just as the torpedo is an image of Socrates, presented by Meno (80A-C) But they are different in that while the latter is intended to stop inquiry, recollection is a metaphor that stimulates inquiry and helps to develop new ideas expressible in literal paraphrases ('the illustrative thesis' in E E Pender, Images of Persons Unseen, Sankt Augustin 2000) In the Phaedo Plato continues his quest for the truth about learning, with the help of recollection as the image of learning, and thereby develops such new ideas as the existence of Forms and the immortality of the soul His further inquiry about knowledge, the object of learning, in the Theaetetus is taken to be its further continuation