Was socrates a rationalist

Answer 1

Yes, Plato and Socrates believed that they proved knowledge was innate by giving a maths problem to a slave boy and getting him to work it out without assistance, only indicating when what he said was wrong; thereby, they demonstrated how the knowledge needed to solve the problem was not acquired, so must be innate.

However there are flaws to this experiment; whether he was aware of it or not, it would have been very difficult for Socrates to remain completely unhelpful to the slave, with his intonation and body language affecting the boys' perception of the questions he asked. This can even be extended to argue that by telling the slave when he got the wrong answer, he was teaching him since this then eliminated one method at a time until he eventually found the right one. Even in asking the questions, Socrates was educating the boy in demonstrating the possibility for him to acquire this knowledge; it is likely that his lack of education would mean that he would never ask the questions himself; Socrates, an educated man, would ask them because he had been conditioned to do so through education.