Platos Meno Essay -- essays research papers

Plato MenoIn Platos dialogue Socrates discusses ways in which sexual morality can be acquired withMeno. third possibilities are confronted, first that virtue is innate deep down the gracioussoul. The second suggests that virtue can be taught, and the third possibility is that virtueis a gift from the gods. These ways are debated by Socrates and Meno to a very wide of the markconclusion.Socrates poses the question that virtue may be innate within the human soul. Thisis to say that all people would keep up virtue within them, moreover it is only those who find itthat can truly become virtuous. To prove the judgment of innate understanding to Meno,Socrates, acquires the help of one of Menos slave boys to demonstrate. Socratesestablishes that the boy has neer been taught mathematical geometry and startsbombarding him with a series of questions on the physical properties of a square. First heasks the boy to multiply the square by deuce, and he succeeds. However, the boy fails whenasked to divide the same square into two parts half the original size. By asking the boy aseries of questions yet, never actually telling him the answers Socrates helps the slave torecollect the knowledge that is within him. Meno is of runway astonished with this featthat Socrates maintains is simply a matter of recollection.This example prone by Socrates, though obviously persuasive to Meno issomewhat unstable. It can be shown that Socrates manipulated the boy into recollectingthe data by offering suggestive material within his questions. For example, if aperson did not know the sum of the equation two plus two one could ask if a person hadtwo apples and someone else gave them two more would the person then not piddle fourapples in total? A question was asked yet the information on how to perform theoperation was directly given in the statement. thusly it can be reasoned that Socrates in asense did pick up the boy how to divide the square.Following this demonstration So crates poses a second sentiment that virtue may betaught. He begins by looking for teachers of virtue and comes up with four examples. The first is Themistocles who is agreed to be virtuous by the debaters and obviously agood teacher of his virtue. However the debaters also agre... ...finite perceptiveness to any of the possibilitiesthat have been stated.Now the question is would Socrates have maintained that ignorance is satisfaction basedon his views of the possible ways of acquiring virtue? I would conclude that he wouldnot see ignorance as bliss because Socrates believes that the right is far greater than theunknowing. Throughout the dialogue Socrates and Meno journey to put divagation theirignorance to come to the accuracy on how virtue is acquired and possibly more importantlywhat virtue is. Even though the path to lawfulness has proved teasing in that the two are moreperplexed on the composition at the end of the dialogue then at the beginning Socrates wouldhave se en this as the first footstep to achieving the truth. This of course is better than notachieving that step at all.Socrates is ultimately concerned in finding the whole truth and would havedefiantly preferred knowing some of the truth alternatively than being ignorant to it. Eventhough Socrates knew that the journey to reach the truth may be awful, ignorance wouldbe far worse than a painful truth. Ultimately he knew that the way must be tried