Anamimneskesthai is better translated as being reminded and reminding oneself, rather than by the conventional rendering ‘recollect’, because this accounts not only for the middle and passive form of the verb, but also for Plato and Aristotle agreeing (Plato Phaedo 73C-75C; Aristotle On Memory ch. 2) that anamnesis involves an association of ideas. It is distinct from memory, although it is a use of memory. Aristotle says that memory, even of objects of thought, is a function of the perceptual faculty, involving images, On Memory 1, 450a12-25. But anamnesis, viewed as a deliberate search by association of ideas is too like reasoning to belong to non-rational animals, On Memory 2, 453a4-14.
Anamnesis owes its chief importance to Plato’s claim that even when we first, as babies, see or hear, we are reminded of universals like equality, which have not been given us in experience, and must have been known to our souls before we were born, Phaedo 75B-C. Plato already adumbrates the theory in the Meno. This was taken by the commentators as an account of how we have universal concepts. Types of anamnesis, and objections to the theory, are discussed by Damascius. Augustine, though at first strongly attracted by the theory, denies it in his Retractations.
Recollection is acknowledged by Plotinus (Ennead IV). But it is needed only by the lower soul, not by the undescended soul which is uninterruptedly thinking the Forms. For Proclus’ rejection of undescended soul and assertion of a certain recollection theory. Iamblichus and Philoponus ascribe a version of recollection theory to Aristotle. (SorabjiPC1)