Plato's Meno

A detailed Summary of Plato's Meno

In Plato's Dialogue "Meno", Meno comes to Socrates with the question "Can virtue be taught?" A timeless question that addresses which virtues are innate and which can be learned. Through Plato's question asking the two come to the conclusion that virtue cannot be taught nor is it innate. One critical passage to this argument is 86c - 96d. In this passage an attempt to define virtue is made, along with what encompasses virtue and what it is encompassed by. After establishing this Socrates attempts to identify teachers of virtue in society. It is at the conclusion of this specific argument that the idea of virtue being something that can be taught is discredited.

Socrates persuades Meno to investigate the definition of virtue by making an analogy to geometry, a subject that was used earlier in the passage to prove being able to learn something without having any prior knowledge of it. In continuing with his argument he attempts to prove virtue is a kind of knowledge, as if it is knowledge it can be taught. Socrates states that virtue is good, and everything that is good must be beneficial. The

be wisdom, so it can't be something born into people. Socrates supports this with the concept that if virtue were born into people, then there would be people to identify those born good.

Virtue cannot be innate is what the two arrive upon; leaving the idea that it can be taught to be proven. If virtue is to be taught, then there must be teachers and learners of it. To learn a life skill one would go to someone who practices that profession, so the idea that this would apply to virtue is accepted. There is a group of people that claim to be teachers of virtue called Sophists. Anytus is then introduced into the conversation and asked about the Sophists. His belief is that they only corrupt their followers and is insulted that they are mentioned in his household. Anytus claims that any Athenian gentleman could make another person virtuous. Socrates points out that Themistocles, a virtuous man, did not have a virtuous son. If Themistocles were able to teach virtue, it would seem logical that he would have taught it to his son. The conversation then goes over other virtuous Greek men that were

Some common words found in the essay are:
Meno Meno, Greece Sophists, Socrates Themistocles, Sophists Anytus, Meno Virtue, virtue taught, teachers virtue, claim teachers, capacity learn virtue, idea virtue, learn virtue, definition virtue, capacity learn, born people, parents religious, beneficial wisdom,

Approximate Word count = 747
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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Plato's Meno

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