Meno’s Paradox Meno and Socrates, found themselves in a debate over virtue. The men were trying to uncover the truth about how one acquires virtue; is it taught? Is it practiced? Or is it inborn? When Socrates proposes that they try to define virtue itself, because they do not know what it is to begin with, the men reach a disagreement. Both Socrates and Meno had very different views about how one acquires knowledge about virtue and all other things as well. Meno proposes a view, or a paradox, in
Meno’s paradox states that is impossible to gain new knowledge using inquiry. In this essay I will explain Meno’s paradox, and then I will analyse ‘the theory of recollection’, the solution to it given by Plato. In Plato’s Meno, Socrates and Meno attempt to answer the question, ‘What is virtue?’ Through this discussion, Meno is lead to question whether they are even able to arrive at an answer, presenting us with the paradox of inquiry, ‘And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you
2014 PHIL 1301.001 Word Count: Is Plato’s Theory of Recollection a plausible solution to Meno’s Paradox of Knowledge? The general topic is Plato’s theory of recollection. Is Plato’s Theory of Recollection the plausible solution to Meno’s Paradox of Knowledge? Throughout many of his dialogues Plato often concludes that we cannot know something through our senses. He often concludes that we became acquainted with our knowledge in a previous existence. In Meno, Socrates states that, “As the soul
In this essay I intend to begin by looking at what the Meno actually is, to allow for some context when I begin analysing the response offered by Socrates as the question asks. I will then attempt to discuss other proposed responses to the paradox proposed by Meno, in order to compare them and how satisfactory I find them to be in regard to the Socratic response. To begin with adding some context then, what exactly is the Meno? The Meno is a dialogue written by the ancient philosopher Plato
In the text of the Meno by Plato, the dialogue develops and attempts to answer the question of what virtue is, and whether it is teachable. The paradox explained can be used to discuss merely anything, and we can thus say that either one knows or does not know. If a person knows, then they cannot investigate or question their knowledge. However, if a person does not know, they cannot inquire about it which means a person cannot question for not knowing what they do not know. Plato goes ahead and
Total Recall: …Plato’s Recollection… “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (New International Version 1 Timothy 6:15-16). Immortality has been a major subject of philosophical contemplation throughout the history of written language, but even with its popularity it has been held for the most part as impossible. Likewise, most cultures in the past and present acknowledge
Meno's Paradox It is thought that Meno's paradox is of critical importance both within Plato's thought and within the whole history of ideas. It's major importance is that for the first time on record, the possibility of achieving knowledge from the mind's own resources rather than from experience is articulated, demonstrated and seen as raising important philosophical questions. Meno's paradox states: `Why on what lines will you look, Socrates, for a thing of whose
Plato’s dialogue Meno begins with Meno asking Socrates whether virtue can be taught. Socrates responds by saying that he does not have an answer to such question because he does not even have knowledge of what virtue is. This claim prompts Meno to provide Socrates with a definition of virtue. He explains that there are different virtues for different people dependent on their gender, age, and social class (Plato 872). Socrates, however, rejects this definition because it fails to provide a single
The general topic is Plato’s theory of recollection. Is Plato’s Theory of Recollection the plausible solution to Meno’s Paradox of Knowledge? Throughout many of his dialogues Plato often concludes that we cannot know something through our senses. He often concludes that we became acquainted with our knowledge in a previous existence. In Meno, Socrates states that, “As the soul is immortal, has been born often, and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned;
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 (or ‘virtue’), as revealed in a conceptual