Part 1: Short answers.
Whenever sonrane, on seeing something, realizes that that which he now sees wants to be like some other reality but falls short and cannot be like that other since it is inferior, do we agree that the one who thinks this must have prior knowledge of that to whith he says it is like, but deficiently so?
Necessarily.
Well, do we also experience this about the equal objects and the Equal itnplf, or do we not?
Very defmitely-
We must then possess knowledge of the Equal before that time when we first saw the equal objects and realized that all these objects strive to be like the Equal but are deficient in this
That is so-
1. Suppose someone is trying to teach you the meaning of the term ‘equal'. Why is it implausible that you could achieve that using only what is given to you from perception, through repeated experience? (If you prefer, imagine that someone is trying to teach you the meaning of the term ‘bear'. Why is it implausible that you could achieve that using only what is given to you from perception?)
2. Give a clear example - using ‘equal' or ‘half' - of the kind of thought that Plato seems to be describing in the first paragraph here.
3. A similar thought process could apply to the concepts ‘fair' or ‘right'. Briefly, how does that connect with what we are told elsewhere by Plato about the difference between philosophers and non-philosophers?