Socrates' Lesson in Plato's Meno
Uploaded by supershocker on Aug 17, 2002
In Plato’s Meno, Socrates discusses ways in which virtue can be acquired with Meno. Meno’s original question of whether virtue can be taught along with the more fundamental question of what virtue is occupies the entire text as Sophocles tries to bring about ways to answer. Three possibilities are confronted; first, that virtue is natural within the human soul; second, that virtue can be taught; and third, that virtue is a gift from the gods. These ways are debated by Socrates and Meno to a very broad conclusion.
On page 139 Meno says,
“All in the same, I would rather consider the question as I put it at the beginning, and hear your views on it; that is, are we to pursue virtue as something that can be taught, or do men have it as a gift of nature or how?”
Not only does this show Meno’s interest in learning, but it also and most importantly expresses that he is open to the thought that virtue may just come to a person. He does not seem to think that there is only way it may come, but rather, he is open to many ways. Although he says this towards the end, it summarizes the possible ways discussed within the dialogue.
Socrates poses the question that virtue may be natural within the human soul. This is to say that all people would have virtue within them, but it is only those who find it that can truly become virtuous. To prove this concept to Meno, Socrates, acquires the help of one of Meno’s slave boys to demonstrate. Socrates establishes that the boy has never been taught mathematical geometry and starts bombarding him with a series of questions on the physical properties of a square. First he asks the boy to multiply the square by two, and he succeeds. However, the boy fails when asked to divide the same square into two parts half the original size. By asking the boy a series of questions yet, never actually telling him the answers, Socrates helps the slave to “recollect” the knowledge that is within him. Meno is of course astonished with this feat that Socrates maintains is simply a matter of recollection. This example given by Socrates, though obviously persuasive to Meno, is somewhat unstable. It can be shown that Socrates manipulated the boy into recollecting the information by offering suggestive material within...