Plato's problem

Plato's Problem

Plato's Problem is the term given by Noam Chomsky to the gap between knowledge and experience. It is used in linguistics to refer to the "Argument from Poverty of the stimulus" (APS).

Introduction

    What is knowledge?  What is experience?  How do they interact?  Is there a correlational, causal, or reciprocal relationship between knowledge and experience?  These and other related questions have been at the forefront of investigation by problem solvers, scientists, psychologists, and philosophers for centuries.  These questions, but particularly the problem of how experience and knowledge interrelate, have broad theoretical and practical implications for such academic disciplines as ''epistemology'', linguistics, and psychology (specifically the subdiscipline of thinking and problem solving).  Gaining a more precise understanding of human knowledge, whether defined as innate, experiential, or both, is an important part of effective problem solving.  
    Plato is often referred to as the Father of Philosophy.  His impact in academic and intellectual circles is far reaching.  He was the first philosopher who systematically inquired into issues such as those noted above.  Plato wrote many dialogues, such as Euthyphro and the Apology, but it is from the Meno that the modern instantiation of Plato’s Problem is derived.  In the Meno, Plato theorizes about the relationship between knowledge and experience and provides an explanation for how it is possible to apparently know something that one has never been explicitly taught.  Plato believed that people 1. either directly or potentially have much more knowledge at any given time than experience would dictate.  
    As contemporarily formulated by Noam Chomsky (Dresher), accounting for this gap between knowledge and experience is “Plato’s Problem.”  The phrase has a specific linguistic context but in a more general sense, Plato’s Problem refers to “lack of input.”  Solving Plato’s Problem involves explaining the gap between what one knows and the apparent lack of substantive input from experience or the environment.