Plato's Epistemology and Theory of Knowledge

Plato on Education

Plato's Philosophy of Education - Raphael Sanzio

Plato said that knowledge comes from the highest realms of consciousness, and that we do not
create wisdom, we just recollect lost memories...
Where does knowledge come from? According to Plato, knowledge comes from the ideal plane, a higher realm that
stores all archetypes of perfection and virtues that represent role models to be copied by humans living in the
physical sphere. Some people, however, are more apt to recognize truth, beauty and moral virtues than others, since
different people are experiencing different levels of consciousness.
Platos theory of knowledge emphasizes that people are born with an innate knowledge of the ideal world, and the
role of education and arts is to remind humans about their origins and experiences of past lives, in order to lead
students towards perfection.
Platos Philosophy of Education Anamnesis
In the democratic Athens, it was believed that any person, with proper education, could be trained to become a
virtuous citizen and ruler. In fact, the education of the young aristocrats aimed to shape the students characters
according to the great mythological heroes of the Odyssey and the Iliad. For Plato, however, this was not necessarily
true as people are born different.
It is not possible to understand Plato's epistemology without taking into account that Plato understood that knowledge
cannot be created, it has to be recollected through education, inspiration and art (this process was called anamnesis).
So all knowledge and all truth already exists in the ideal plane the original home of the sou l but the part of the
soul which is incarnated and subjected to the limitations of the physical body has the task of recollecting this
knowledge in order to reflect it into the physical world, and therefore, make a conscious walk back to its source.
An advocate of the theory of the transmigration of the soul, Plato believed that each person needs many incarnations
in order to purify the senses so that they can be channels through which truth manifests itself. Obviously, those who
are ahead in the evolutionary journey are more likely to develop virtues than others, but all souls are equally faded to
arrive at its destiny this is the human fate.

The Role of Education According to Plato

So, Plato thought that education (along with arts) should teach students to refine their tastes, allowing them to
contemplate their true origin. In Plato's ideal state as described in The Republic (360 B.C.E), Plato makes it clear
that every child must be taught according to their nature, but how to define a child's nature? For Plato, since people

are experiencing different levels of consciousness in their evolutionary trajectory, it is normal that they will have
different talents. In the ideal state, a child should never be educated only in accordance with their parents skills and
abilities (a common practice in the ancient world), but in accordance with the talents they demonstrated. For Plato,
knowledge cannot be passed genetically from parent to child, so a child's skills depended on the experiences he or
she carried inside from past existences.

The Education in the Ideal State

In Plato's ideal state, children (boys and girls) should be educated by the state and the most gifted ones would be
trained to be part of the ruler class at the age of 18. They would learn the art of war and those who demonstrated
abilities for combats could become part of the military class. Selected students would learn geometry, maths,
astronomy and harmonics.
Later, those who stood out would learn philosophy, including metaphysics, dialectics and logic. By the age of 50, a
man would have successfully completed his higher education. Indeed, the modern world would benefit from
resurrecting the Platonic ideal.