Dave asked:

Which came first, the question or the idea?

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We must always have an idea before we can ask a meaningful question. For any question consists of
ideas, and therefore the question cannot be posed before we have acquired the ideas out of which it
is composed. For example, before Dave could formulate the question that I'm answering, he had to
have the concept of a question, an idea and the notion of coming first.

Perhaps a more fundamental philosophical question is where do our ideas come from? Plato's
famous Theory of the Forms is one attempt to answer this. He argued that we were acquainted with
Forms, such as justice itself, beauty, and the good, prior to birth. The ontological status that Plato
ascribed to the Forms is hotly disputed, but it is evident from his theory of recollection, as put forward
in both the Menoand the Phaedo,that the Forms are postulated as the source of the ideas that we
have in this life. Was Plato right about this?

Samantha Solomons