《메논》의 상기와 수학교육적 함의

Abstract

Plato's dialogue Meno, the first to mention recollection, includes a conversation between Socrates and a slave boy about finding the side length of a square that doubles the area of ​​a given square. This dialogue describes one of the oldest scenes in mathematics education and is frequently cited in mathematics education for its pedagogical approach, which encourages students to discover on their own through systematic questioning and guidance. However, recollection is rarely mentioned. This paper focuses on Meno from the theory of recollection perspective. In Meno, recollection is explained through a mythological metaphor, based on the premise of the immortality of the soul, in which knowledge acquired in a previous life is recalled with the help of a teacher, thereby forgetting knowledge in this life. This can be seen as a Platonic methodology, in which Plato introduces hypotheses and inferences to overcome the limitations of Socratic argumentation. Therefore, if we analyze the above from this perspective, the knowledge of past lives can be viewed as first principles, such as hypotheses or axioms and postulates accepted as true, and the deductive process using reasoning can be regarded as recollection in this life. This process of recollection can ultimately be seen as the foundation of axiomatics, which is based on the deductive reasoning of mathematics.