Plato believed that “ the soul was immortal; at times it comes to an end , which they call dying, at times it is reborn, but it is never destroyed, and one must therefore live one’s life as piously as possible…there is nothing which it has not learned.” (81c)
This introduces the theory that knowledge comes through recollection. The idea that knowledge has been simply forgotten by the body at birth, but when asked the right questions one can remember what it indeed already knows. This leads to Meno’s “Paradox of Inquiry.” Stating basically that if you know what you're looking for, inquiry is unnecessary. If you don't know what you're looking for, inquiry is impossible. Therefore, inquiry is either unnecessary or impossible. (80d-e) However, Meno’s paradox is flawed because the original assumption is wrong so the conclusion will be wrong as well.
This leads Socrates to his “Theory of Recollection” which is explained in slave/geometry illustration. When the slave boy was asked the first question about the doubling of the square he did not know, but after more questions the boy knows the answer. Therefore, since the boy did not inquire knowledge between the questions, he must have already known the answer. This is also misleading because the questions themselves imply knowledge. The boy is inquiring knowledge through the questions themselves. For example, a computer has no knowledge, but through a series of yes/no questions it arrives at databank of knowledge. This idea of knowledge then leads back to the original question, “Can virtue be taught.”
Virtue and knowledge are assumed as being qualities of the soul. They can be either harmful or beneficial determining if they are accompan ...