Plato - Meno

Introduction

Plato's "Meno" is about a dialogue which takes place between Meno, a nobleman from Thessaly and Socrates the great philosopher from Athens. The other important characters are the slave boy and Anytus (a wealthy aristocrat). The dialogue is very simple in form and takes an in-depth look at virtue. It consists of three parts: the definition of virtue, a demonstration which shows that successful inquiry is possible and an example of how virtue can be taught through a mathematical solution.

Meno's Paradox

Meno asks Socrates how one can find something which one does not know and if he finds it how will he know if it is the thing he does not know. Socrates and Meno discuss the nature of virtue and look at the ways virtue can be acquired. Meno questions whether virtue can be taught or learnt. He believes that there are three possibilities: virtue is something which is done through the recollection of memories by a person virtue can be taught or that virtue is a gift of God. Socrates is unable to talk about the characteristics of virtue as he believes that there is no answer to what virtue is. He wants Meno to find the answer himself by asking him to define the characteristics of virtue. Socrates does not have the knowledge about what qualities virtue has and the fact that he has never met anyone who knows the deepness of virtue. Virtue does not possess any quality as it is a thing which possesses qualities of its own.

Meno is very interested in learning and shows a lot of open mindedness to Socrates ideas. According to Meno, "There is virtue for every action and every age, for every task of ours and every one of us" (Plato. p71e. Meno. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1949) He feels that every human being has a different virtue from the other as it's a man's duty to manage his life, help his friends in need , hurt his enemies and saving himself from danger. Meno also believes that virtue is "to desire beautiful things and have the power to acquire them"( Plato.Pg 77b Meno. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1949 ). Socrates responds to this statement by asking if anyone would ask for bad things to happen to him. A Meno reply that a virtuous man is intelligent enough to understand the difference between good and bad and will not go for it he knows that it will upset him. Meno has this belief that a vicious person can only go for bad things if he believes that it is good for him and can harm other human beings. He also feels that virtuous men are better at getting at getting beautiful things such as wealth, health, power and prestige because they understand the difference between good and bad. Socrates does not agree with this suggestion as he believes that man can be driven to acquire material wealth in an unethical manner which could be classified as an act of immorality or evil. Men who go through the path of justice to acquire material wealth are virtuous. This proves the fact that justice is a part of virtue and not that justice is virtue. This is where Meno realizes that his theory about virtue is off the track and leads him to be uncertain about what he feels.

Socrates believes that virtue could be something which is natural and which lies inside their soul and can only be discovered by people who have discovered what virtue truly is. Socrates tries to prove this point by asking one of meno's slave boys to participate in a mathematical demonstration. The slave boy understands simple arithmetic but does not possess any geometrical skills. Socrates tries to prove a point by asking the slave boy to multiply a square by two. He manages to do this successfully. However he fails to get the answer when he is asked to divide the square into two parts plus its original size. Socrates helps the boy with his predicament by asking him a number of questions which in turn helps the boy recollect the knowledge which he possesses. Socrates makes a point that the slave started out by thinking he knew how to solve his problem, then felt that he solved it and went back thinking he didn't know how to. Socrates states that the slave boy had his own opinions and that the "the man who does not know has within himself true opinions about the things that he does not know". (Plato. Pg. 85c Meno. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1949). Socrates feels that the slave boy did not learn these facts during his lifetime because his soul is immortal and that whatever knowledge it possesses was due to knowledge it acquired from a previous life. It can be assumed that the soul already had conscious possession of knowledge which it brings up as a latent memory. (J.M. Day, Plato's Meno in Focus, London and New York: Routledge, 1994)The acquisition of knowledge is thus a process of remembering whatever has been learned in the past. Socrates's theory does not make sense in a lot of ways as he claims that a human soul has had a recollection of knowledge from his previous life. Hypothetically if the spirit is reborn there is always the possibility that the knowledge he possesses has been passed on to him by someone and has not been acquired on his own. Socrates may have used this tactic to prove Meno wrong but then in doing so he may have been wrong himself. "Robert Sternfeld. Plato's Meno: A Philosophy of Man as Acquisitive. Southern Illinois University Press..: 1978."

His theory manages to convince Meno who has been thrown off balance with the success of this recollection exercise. However it is highly suggestible that Socrates used leading questions by providing suggestive information in his questions. Socrates provided the answers in the shape of the questions which more or less explained how to perform the mathematical task. This is one reason why the boy failed the