Page - 614 - in The Complete Plato

which he remembers at the time when he remembers? I have, I fear, a tedious way of putting a simple question, which is only, whether a man who has learned, and remembers, can fail to know? THEAETETUS: Impossible, Socrates; the supposition is monstrous. SOCRATES: Am I talking nonsense, then? Think: is not seeing perceiving, and is not sight perception? THEAETETUS: True. SOCRATES: And if our recent definition holds, every man knows that which he has seen? THEAETETUS: Yes. SOCRATES: And you would admit that there is such a thing as memory? THEAETETUS: Yes. SOCRATES: And is memory of something or of nothing? THEAETETUS: Of something, surely. SOCRATES: Of things learned and perceived, that is? THEAETETUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: Often a man remembers that which he has seen? THEAETETUS: True. SOCRATES: And if he closed his eyes, would he forget? THEAETETUS: Who, Socrates, would dare to say so? SOCRATES: But we must say so, if the previous argument is to be maintained. THEAETETUS: What do you mean? I am not quite sure that I understand you, though I have a strong suspicion that you are right. SOCRATES: As thus: he who sees knows, as we say, that which he sees; for perception and sight and knowledge are admitted to be the same. THEAETETUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: But he who saw, and has knowledge of that which he saw, remembers, when he closes his eyes, that which he no longer sees. THEAETETUS: True. SOCRATES: And seeing is knowing, and therefore not-seeing is not- knowing? 614