Meno Dialogue Analysis

The Meno is a dialogue between Meno and Socrates written by the philosopher Plato. In the beginning of Meno, Meno puts up the question to Socrates of what is virtue and can it come from teaching,practicing, or by nature. Socrates replies back that he himself does not know what virtue is. Socrates also suggests that there are many different forms of virtues but they all must have something in common that makes it considered a virtue.

The Socratic method in which Socrates uses during the conversation between Meno and himself is the method of a dialogue between two people. The method provides Meno to search the answer to his own question of what virtue is. With the help of asking questions provided by Socrates to Meno, Meno will be able to get some sort of idea of what virtue is.

The paradox of inquiry also known as Meno's paradox is the question of whether you can inquire something you either know it or you don't know it. The formulation of the paradox of inquiry is either you know x or you don't know x. If you know x,you cannot inquire it. If you don't know x, you cannot inquire it. So, therefore you cannot inquire it. Socrates responds to the paradox of inquiry by 3 solutions. One is the Clenetic reply. Second is the thesis that learning is recollection. Third is the demonstration with a slave boy using geometry.

The Clenetic reply proposes that one can inquire in the absence of knowledge because of one's capacity for reflection and because of one's true belief. An example of this would be when Socrates ask Meno to explain what virtue is on his own belief. Meno suggests that virtue can be for anyone such as a man,woman, or childs at any fields of practice. He also defines virtue as the desire for fine things and having the p...

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...r taught or learned.

At the end of the discussion between the two, Socrates suggests that virtue does not come either by teaching or from nature, but virtue comes to people at some point in their life by divine dispensation without any thought of it happening. In addition, there is no clear knowledge of what virtue is and how it comes to people.

In conclusion, Socrates used his own method also known as the Socratic Method in order to help Meno understand more of what virtue is. Socrates provides questions to Meno because Socrates knows that the answer could be found with one's self. Socrate's three solution to the paradox of inquiry which are the clenetic reply,thesis that learning is recollection, and the demonstration with the slave boy provides excellent help to determine of what cannot be learned but instead recollected or recovered from the soul of the human.