Sean Meslar Post 3 Outside Readings

The Theaetetus is the first of Plato's great dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. In traditional Socratic fashion, this dialogue focuses on refuting opposing definitions rather than proposing an answer of its own. In the dialogue, Socrates interacts with a promising young student after whom the dialogue is named. The dialogue is, in my opinion, one of the greatest works in all of western literature both because of the brilliant dialectic as well as the masterfully created theme of Socrates as intellectual midwife. The first account of knowledge is traditionally associated with Protagoras "Man is the measure of all things" etc. or as Theaetetus puts it "knowledge is perception." Upon Socrates lengthy and multi-faceted rejection of this claim, Theaetetus undergoes the first steps of philosophical labor, intellectual pain from exposure to the new ideas. Next, Socrates summarizes the ideas the two have agreed upon to this point and refers to this summary as the "orphan of Protagoras" in continuity with the theme of childbirth. Socrates does his best to properly raise the orphan and attempts a defense of the originally rejected doctrine. Finally, Socrates gives a description of the mind "as you may suppose a man to have caught wild birds--doves or any other birds--and to be keeping them in an aviary which he has constructed at home;" in an attempt to explain mistakes in considering the Socratic principle of recollection, which claims that all knowledge is known before life and is merely remembered rather than learned. Mistakes in this knowledge stem from grabbing at a bird (idea) and reaching something, but not knowing that the knowledge acquired is inappropriate to the situation. Ultimately, Socrates rejects this definition as well as too vague and goes off to attempt to defend himself from charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, rather ironically considering the nature of his present discussion with the young Theaetetus.