Meno's Paradox
How can you search for something you don't know? And how would you recognise it if you found it?
c. 380 BCE9 min read
Ancient Greek philosophy
Plato
428 BCE – 348 BCE
Athenian philosopher, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. His dialogues — among the best-preserved texts of ancient philosophy — invented or recorded the tradition of systematic philosophical argument in the West. The Meno, one of his middle dialogues, poses the paradox of inquiry: how can one search for something without already knowing what one is looking for? Plato's answer, the doctrine of recollection, holds that learning is a matter of remembering knowledge the soul possessed before birth. His founding of the Academy made Athens the centre of philosophical education for centuries.