I'm trying to clean out some old office stuff in anticipation of our sabbatical and my need to write. I came across a notebook from years ago where I wrote on Plato's Meno. In this dialogue, Socrates argues that learning is simply the soul's recollection of what it already knows. OK, that's maybe true of wisdom, but then again...Sorry, Socrates, you're full of shit there.
However, Socrates goes on to say that ignorance is better than false knowledge, because ignorance can be filled, whereas false knowledge must first removed before it can be filled with truth (including, presumably those things the soul already knows).
The idea of virtue however, does fall perhaps into something the soul knows but must be reminded of. If virtue is clouded with false knowledge, then this could explain... well so much of what we see among the right, especially the evangelical right. Socrates argues that no passive student can learn virtue or wisdom, they must actively seek it. Yet, much of evangelical Christianity is based on the passive acceptance that the Bible is literally true. Questioning Biblical Infallibility is to question God, and we can't allow THAT.
Anyway, Pat Robertson died, so that's cool. One less bigot.
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