Meno's Paradox and the Immortality of Soul
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:59 am
What makes it possible to contemplate a quality of existence which is unnecessary for an earthly existence? You can sense that you are thirsty or hungry and look for water or food since the body understands what it needs. But what can be the impulse to search for higher meaning if we are unaware of it? Perhaps what some are looking for spiritually and through philosophy isn't anything new. Rather it is knowledge that just needs to be remembered. Is there a better explanation?Meno's Paradox and the Immortality of Soul: how will you know what you are looking for if you first don't already know it (and thus have no reason to go looking for it)? But why look for something you already have? This is the paradox raised in Plato's dialogue called the Meno. In answer to "Meno's Paradox," Plato suggests that before we were born we existed in another realm of being (the realm of the Forms). The shock of being born makes us forget what we knew in that realm. But when we are asked the right questions or have certain experiences, we remember or "recollect" innate (inborn) truths. So if we existed before our births, there is every reason to think that we will continue to exist after our deaths.