Can Virtue be Taught in Plato's Dialogue

Meno was one of Plato’s earliest of dialogues, written in depth the book is founded around a central question: If virtue can be taught, then how? And if not, then how does virtue come to man, either by nature or some other way? Socrates addresses this inquiry by questioning a person who claims to understand the term’s meaning (Plato's Meno). The purpose of this essay is to relate the Socratic method performed by Socrates in Plato’s dialogue The Apology, to Meno, by illustrating its effect on the

a kind of virtue or not, or whether a person who has it is happy or unhappy” (Republic 354c) Plato presents Socrates as believing in the unity of the virtues, skeptical of those who, like Meno, wish to treat the virtues as distinct objects of inquiry in dialogues such as Laches, Protagoras, Meno, the Republic, and Euthyphro. These dialogues provide good reason to deny that Plato’s Socrates believed in the numerical identity of the virtues. I shall argue that in the various virtues is one essence

"Socrates, can virtue be taught?"1 The dialogue begins with Meno asking Socrates whether virtue can be taught. At the end of the Meno (86d-100b), Socrates attempts to answer the question. This question is prior to the division between opinion and knowledge and provides to unsettle both. Anytus participated in Socrates and Meno conversation about virtue. Socrates claims that if virtue is a kind of knowledge, then it can be learned. If it is something besides a kind of knowledge, it perceptibly cannot

same case with respect to his predecessors. Therefore it is necessary to pick out quotations or near paraphrases from others’ writings about him. However it remains difficult to do so even when the sources are examined. Such sources include: the dialogues of Plato; various writings of Xenophon, particularly the Memorabilia; Aristophanes; and a few remarks by Aristotle. (McInerny

exactly is the Meno? The Meno is a dialogue written by the ancient philosopher Plato. (427 B.C.E. -347 B.C.E.) These dates are unfortunately are not entirely exact as it is not in fact known for definite when Socrates was born or when he died. The dates do however inform us of the period he lived within. (Day, 1994, p.8) The actual dates of Plato’s work are also unknown to us. Philosophers have however created what they believe to be an accurate timeline of Plato’s works by cross-referencing the texts

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 thought). Nonetheless, in order to understand the aims and achievements of the dialogue, it helps to keep

Mark, Luke, and John wrote parables, which are not absolutely known to be factual or fictional, in which they attempt to teach Jesus’ lessons. Like Plato, none of them were actually witnesses to any of the events they wrote about. Plato writes dialogues, instead of parables, in which his character Socrates to teach Socratic philosophy, and to teach some philosophy that wasn’t truly Socratic. “Plato uses the literary character of Socrates in many of his writings to present ideas that go well beyond

In Plato’s dialogue, Meno, the primary objective is an inquiry of the meaning of virtue. Much debate and several futile attempts to define virtue prompts Meno to inquire whether an answer is even possible. The problem Socrates and Meno have come across is how do you find something, like virtue, when you do not know what it is you are looking for and how will you know when you have found it? This idea is what is known as “Meno’s Paradox”: “[One] cannot search for what he knows—since he knows it

both Solon and Pisistratus. Plato's parents were Ariston and Perictone, his older brothers were Adeimantus and Glaucon, and his younger sister was Potone. In keeping with his family heritage, Plato was destined for the political life. But the Peloponnesian War, which began a couple of years before he was born and continued until well after he was twenty, led to the decline of the Athenian Empire. The war was followed by religious movement that led to the execution of Plato's mentor, Socrates. Together

which suggested that virtues were like a crafts. While Socrates may have used this method to his advantage, it is