ABSTRACT
The phrase ‘knowledge is remembrance’ sounds familiar. It is reminiscent of Socrates’ formulation in Phaedo, ‘learning is recollection (he mathesis anamnesis)’. And, as we know from Theaetetus, if learning is recollection, the goal of learning, knowledge, must be the actual having in hand (ekhein)1 of what is recollected. Knowledge is remembrance. Socrates says (Phaedo, 75d 8-11), ‘For to know [eidenai] means to possess the knowledge attained [labonta tou epistëmën) and not to have lost it; or does not forgottenness flëthë] mean the loss of knowledge [epistëmës apobolë]T ‘Knowledge is remembrance’. What could be clearer than that? Is there any other Platonic notion we can feel so sure of? Is there any other Platonic formulation that moves us so quickly and effortlessly to the very heart of what is called the Platonic philosophy?
