Plato's Meno and Republic Lecture Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key philosophical concepts, figures, and definitions from Plato's Meno and Book 1 of the Republic discussed in the lecture.

Theory of Recollection

The idea that learning is really remembering knowledge the soul already had before birth.

Transmigration of Souls

When someone dies, their soul leaves the body and is reborn in another body.

Innate Knowledge

The idea is that some knowledge is already in your mind before you learn it from experience or school.

Rationalism

The philosophical belief that reason, rather than sensory experience, is the primary source of knowledge.

A Priori

Knowledge gained through pure reason rather than sensory experience.

Slave Boy Episode

A passage in Plato's Meno where Socrates asks a boy geometry questions to demonstrate that knowledge is innate and recalled.

Gorgias

A sophist who argued that virtue depends on a person's social role.

Dialectic

A philosophical method of asking questions, testing ideas, and learning from mistakes to uncover true knowledge through reason.

Sophistic Method

A way of arguing meant to persuade listeners and win debates rather than find the truth.

True Opinion

A correct belief that can easily be changed because it is not backed up by reason.

Cardinal Virtues

The four main Greek virtues: justice, wisdom, courage, and self-control (temperance).

Temperance

One of the four cardinal virtues in Greek philosophy, alternatively translated in English as moderation or self-control.

Cephalus

Polemarchus's elderly father in Plato's Republic who remarks that old age makes it easier to live justly, he gives the first defintion of justice

Polemarchus

The son of Cephalus who hosts the discussion in Plato's Republic and gives a definition of justice.