Meno Essay

In the Meno, Socrates and Meno discuss the nature of virtue, the process of acquiring knowledge, and also the concept of the teachability of virtue. Throughout the text, Meno suggests many varying definitions for virtue, all of which Socrates is able to dismantle. The point is also raised that it may be impossible to know about something that was not previously understood, because the searcher would have no idea what to be looking for. To dispute this, Socrates makes a point that all knowledge is

Plato 's Meno is a Socratic discussion on the definition of human virtues where the main participants are Socrates and Meno. Other speakers in the dialogue include an Athenian politician, one of Meno 's slaves, and Socrates’ prosecutor Anytus, who is a friend to Meno. Meno wants to understand the broad definition of human virtues and while visiting Athens he initiates the dialogue on virtues with Socrates. The discussion begins with Meno inquiring from Socrates whether virtues can be learned. Meno

was a great ancient Greek philosopher who was a teacher of Aristotle and is best known for his impact as the central figure of Western Philosophy. His main interests were in various categories: education, and of course philosophy. Plato’s dialogue Meno was one his most successful epistemology with giving his viewpoint of virtue and innate knowledge. The full story which I read in high school has 4 core values, Defining virtue, Socrates innate knowledge proof, discussion of virtue being taught and

Like many others Meno believes he knows what the virtues are.  However, Socrates is not pleased by Meno's response to the question.  Meno states that, "it is easy to say that a man's virtue consists of being able to manage public affairs and in so doing to benefit his friends and harm his enemies and to be careful that no harm comes to himself." [Meno 71e]  This is not pleasing to Socrates because Meno also finds that women have different

questions such as: "Can virtue be taught?" This question is examined in detail throughout Plato's Meno, and although the play leaves the question as to what virtue is unanswered, Socrates attempts an answer to Meno's question. Although he is not particularly keen on answering whether virtue can be taught without first having a complete understanding of what virtue is, he attempts to please Meno by solving this in the way that geometers conduct their investigations, through a hypothesis. Socrates

appear to be quite challenging to understand. In the Paradox, Socrates and Meno are inquiring into the term “virtue” and what the definition of “virtue” might be. Socrates postulates three possible options of acquiring knowledge in the Meno; finding out for yourself, learning from someone else or by a divine inspiration. My thesis is that ……. Meno questions Scorates about how he will search for virtue and know what it is – MENO: “How will you look for it Socrates, when you don’t know at all what it

During the trial of Socrates in Plato’s The Apology, Socrates himself states “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato, p.40). Over the millennia this quote has sparked debate about what point Socrates was trying to make. A general agreement has been met in which everyone realizes that Socrates is not suggesting death within this quote. However, my personal belief is that an unexamined life is not worth living because one must fulfill their own wholesome, proper purpose, relative to what they

perfect universe, and everything in that universe was perfect. In his play Meno, Plato illustrates this idea by telling the story of the slave boy. In the play, Socrates asks the boy to draw a square that is double in size. After trial and error, the boy is able to draw the square. There is a dialog between Socrates and Meno, where Socrates questions Meno on where the boy could have obtained that kind of knowledge. Socrates tells Meno that the boy has had no formal schooling, but still knows how to make

There is not a great deal of context that is crucial to understanding the essential themes of the Meno, largely because the dialogue sits nearly at the beginning of western philosophy. Socrates and Plato are working not so much in the context of previous philosophies as in the context of the lack of them. Further, this is very probably one of Plato's earliest surviving dialogues, set in about 402 BCE (by extension, we might presume that it represents Socrates at a relatively early stage in his own

The skeptic is unable to investigate or form any sort of conception of their dogmatic views.(III 31) The above conclusion stems from two premises presented by the dogmatists in their argument against the skeptics ability to inquire. Firstly, if the skpetic grasps what the dogmatist says, he cannot be in doubt about what he has grasped. And secondly, if the skeptic doesn’t grasp what the dogmatist says, he will not even be able to talk about what he has grasped. The dogmatist claim we are considering