ANTICIPATING THE FORMS
ROBERT GREENLEAF BRICEABSTRACT. My aim here is to determine whether in Plato’s early dialogues—Meno, Phaedo, Euthyphro—there is enough evidence to suggest the presence of his theory of Forms. While the theory of recollection (anamnesis) is present in both Meno and Phaedo, the conventional wisdom is that we only find the Forms in the latter. But is there enough evidence to support the view that the theory of Forms is present in the Meno too? Recollection must be of something; is this something the Forms? If anamnesis does not remind us of the Forms in the Meno, what then does it remind us of? What role would anamnesis play here? I believe there is also evidence to suggest presence of the Forms in the Euthyphro, a dialogue chronologically prior to the Meno. If this is correct, it seems the Forms must be present in the Meno as well.