Plato asserts that all the universal knowledge which human beings posses, is not acquired, it is already present in humans as we are “born” with the “knowledge of forms.” This knowledge, Plato states, has been gained, before taking birth since the souls existed even before taking birth in the “Realm of Forms”, and this existence of the souls, was forgotten at the time of birth. Claiming that “all wisdom is recollection”, Plato argues that the wisdom of the forgotten wisdom is recollected sporadically during the survival period in life. Plato explains the difference in “how we know” and “what we know” by distinguishing between epistemology, which deals with the former and metaphysics which deals with the latter. It is this prior knowledge that the soul has, which comes from the Realm of Forms, which Plato states as epistemology. Plato elucidates Socrates’ argument that there has to be some prior knowledge about equality (in this example) in the human being which enables them to compare two objects and deduce whether they are equal or unequal…Thus, as a rationalist, Plato believes that the human mind is capable of acquiring knowledge without being dependent on all the other senses… |