 124. Philosophy � Greek |
PHILOSOPHY - GREEK
Part II
ELEUTHERIOS
-THE LIBERATOR-
Plato's Meno begins with the question, "Can you tell me, Socrates, is virtue to be taught?" The answer of Socrates is, that virtue is not taught but "recollected." Recollection is a gathering of one's self together, a retreat into one's soul. The doctrine of "recollection" suggests that each individual should inquire within himself. He is his own centre and possesses the truth in himself. What is needed is that he should have the will and the perseverance to follow it up. The function of the teacher is not to teach but to help to put the learner in possession of himself. The questioner has the true answer in himself, if only he can be delivered of it. Every man is in possession of the truth and is dispossessed of it by his entanglement in the objective world. By identifying ourselves with the objective world we are ejected or alienated from our true nature. Lost in the outer world, we desert the deeps. In transcending the object, physical and mental, we find ourselves in the realm of freedom.
