Recollection and Experience Plato's Theory of Learning and its Successors [Paperback]

This book approaches theories about learning in the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy.This book is concerned chiefly with theories about learning in the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy. One of the main questions is: does our knowledge arise just out of experience or do we have some innate knowledge as well? The book is original in comparing different theories over a wide period in a way that should be accessible to students of philosophy and classics as well as professionals. It also has a section on seventeenth-century discussions of innate knowledge and their relation to ancient thought.This book is concerned chiefly with theories about learning in the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy. One of the main questions is: does our knowledge arise just out of experience or do we have some innate knowledge as well? The book is original in comparing different theories over a wide period in a way that should be accessible to students of philosophy and classics as well as professionals. It also has a section on seventeenth-century discussions of innate knowledge and their relation to ancient thought.This book is concerned chiefly with theories about learning in the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy. One of the main questions is: does our knowledge arise just out of experience or do we have some innate knowledge as well? The book is original in comparing different theories over a wide period in a way that should be accessible to students of philosophy and classics as well as professionals. It also has a section on seventeenth-century discussions of innate knowledge and their relation to ancient thought.Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; General introduction; Part I. Platonic Recollection: Introduction; 1. The Meno; 2. Recollection in the middle period; Part II. Aristotelian Experience: Introduction; 3. The rejection of innatism; 4. Levels of learning; 5. Discovery and continuity in science; 6. DiscovelCÇ