Meno Virtues

It becomes apparent that Socrates believes that nature triumphs over nurture when he proclaims to Meno, "...it turns out that being good is not something that can be taught; instead, it seems it arises by gift of god, and without understanding, in the people who have it" (Plato 133). Socrates attests to Meno that while it is certainly possible for men to be good, it is impossible for a man to learn to be good from a fellow peer or so-called "teacher." As Meno is unsatisfied with Socrates' argument, Socrates attempts to aid him in understanding by providing him with an explanation on the distinction between knowledge and opinion. Marthe Chandler, a professor of philosophy at DePauw university, describes this when she remarks, "Right opinion and knowledge are both as useful as the statues are lifelike, but just as the statues fly away if they are not tied down, right opinion leaves us--is forgotten--if it is not "tied down" by the logical reasoning

Socrates declares that there is no one to teach people about wisdom and virtues. His conversation with Callias explains that no one can teach wisdom and virtue as there is no one that has mastered wisdom and virtue. Human beings are fallible creatures, morality, ethics and virtues are not always primarily considered in the multitude of decisions and actions that are performed every day. Humans are imperfect individuals, bound by no definitive moral code that is enforceable under any circumstance. Humans are creatures of free will and with free will comes evil and righteousness simultaneously. No one can teach a human being to always be righteous, kind, caring and generous. Socrates declares that there is no one capable of teaching all of these virtues because humans are all imperfect individuals but through inner evaluation humans can constantly strive to get closer to perfection.

This idea then leads onto the question of whether virtue is one thing or many things. Meno is then brought to aporia, now having trouble even defining virtue.

Virtue is a particular moral excellence, a beneficial quality, or power of a thing, and masculine strength or courage. At the end of the Meno, Socrates states that the hypothesis, "if knowledge is virtue, it can be taught." 1 The

Although Socrates encourages questioning authority, he focuses on achieving morality and justice. He believes that

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 thought). Nonetheless, in order to understand the aims and achievements of the dialogue, it helps to keep in mind some details about this lack of previous philosophies.

In correspondence with Socrates' hypothesis, the virtue fits into it in this way: if virtue is knowledge then it can be taught, but if it is not knowledge then it cannot be taught. It is then concluded that virtue is not knowledge, so it cannot be taught. Since men are not virtuous by nature, the conclusion is reached that people are virtuous only if they have received virtue as a gift from the gods. By using this hypothesis, not only has Socrates answered Meno's original question, he has answered all

What arguments do Socrates and his interlocutors provide in these dialogues and what does their discussion suggest about the way in which virtue is in fact acquired? Socrates initiates the inquiries into this problem in each dialogue the same way, that is, to admit no knowledge of the subject at hand. He further admits that he could not possibly teach virtue without knowing what virtue is, “if I do not know what a thing is, how could I know what to teach?” (ho de me oida ti estin,

If we apply this to the question of virtue, which is being considered in the Meno, neither Socrates nor Meno can define virtue, and so they do not know what virtue is, therefore they can not inquire about virtue.

Answer: Before Socrates gets into these virtues, he explains that the virtues cannot exist unless the city is already "just." Justice has been taken care of. These virtues begin with wisdom which is shown by those "guardians" who oversee the city and who make sure the city runs as it has been designed to run. The second virtue, courage, is shown by those in the city who have to fight for the city if necessary; he calls them auxiliaries. The final virtue, moderation, is one that is demonstrated by all people in the city; this virtue is not characteristic of just one group such as the guardians or the auxiliaries. It is the virtue shown by those who understand how the city is justly governed and all who practice moderation agree with that decision.

Yes, I do agree with Meno’s first instinct, as even I would not be able to recount the interpretation of “virtue” in its entirety. Meno interprets virtue as “to find joy in beautiful things and have power.” (Meno) Even more so, Meno believes that virtue varies in relation to men, women and children. However, in reality, having virtue simply means to maintain and uphold good moral values and characteristics. For example, patience is said to be a virtue. Other virtues can be seen as bravery, charity, commitment, compassion, dignity, grace and honesty. I agree with Socrates when he states that virtue is the same for everyone. With that said, on the other hand, not every individual possesses all of the numerous virtues. This is because not every

In Euthyphro, he shows that he is a teacher by teaching Euthyphro what is holy. Euthyphro thought he knew what holy is, but Socrates proves that he is wrong and teaches him what really is holy. Socrates teaches Crito what just really is in Crito. This is another case of somebody thinking they know what something is and Socrates ends up teaching them that they didn’t actually know what they were talking about. Meno is a bit different than the first two. In Meno, Meno asks Socrates a question about virtue whereas in the other two Socrates was teaching something that Euthyphro and Crito thought they knew. Meno is taught that you can’t know if virtue can be taught until you have some understanding of what virtue itself is. Meno had no understanding of what virtue was or if it could be taught, but Socrates gave him a basic understanding of what virtue is and that it can’t be taught. Socrates told people things things they didn’t know, and he showed them things they never saw. Socrates was definitely a

The question asked is “What is Socrates account of a good definition?” Meno tries three times to give a definition for virtue but each time Socrates disproves his definition. The first definition Meno gives states that everyone’s definition of virtue is different depending on who they are, rich or poor, old or young, slave or free. Socrates Immediately tells Meno that this definition of virtue cannot stand.

The statement that the two sexes are not different in kind but only in degree, woman is the weaker man - always inferior in capacity (Book V, 454e), is problematic in itself. Women are associated with men in all human activities, but that association is not one of equals (Book V, 454e). Everywhere, women are only secondary if at all "women". Remarkably, Plato comes to the conclusion that females are first and foremost human beings, even if decidedly inferior human beings, when evaluated according to their ability to engage in characteristics human activities" (Book V, 454e). In addition, Plato considered the differences among members of the same sex far greater than average differences between the sexes in all the relevant aspects to the guidance of an ideal society" (Bluestone188). Plato intends that the guardian class should be composed of both men and women. He maintains that there is nothing in female nature to prevent women's participation, arguing, "there is no way of life concerned with the management of the city that belongs to a woman because she is a woman or to a men because he is a men, but the various natures are distributed in the same way in both

After questioning Meno about virtue, Socrates comes to the conclusion that neither he nor Meno truly know the meaning of the word; he then notes that finding a thorough definition for the term is first necessary in order