From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAnamnēsis denotes recollection.
- In StobaeusSocrates asks whether the interlocutors still accept that learning is recollection and that soul consequently existed before being placed in a body.
- In this edition“Recollection” preserves the connection between learning and prior possession.
- A place to beginLearning as recollection implies prior existence of soul.
- English renderings
- recollection
Meaning
Anamnēsis denotes recollection. In the Phaedo passages it names the proposed recovery involved in learning and therefore supports an argument about soul before embodiment.
Use in the book
Socrates asks whether the interlocutors still accept that learning is recollection and that soul consequently existed before being placed in a body. Simmias accepts this while reconsidering the competing account of soul as harmony. He then rejects the harmony claim because the two explanations do not fit together. Recollection here is an argumentative commitment with consequences, not simply another word for everyday remembering.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Recollection” preserves the connection between learning and prior possession. The entry does not add an account of innate knowledge beyond the argument quoted.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 333–335.