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The below is the sum of the draft we composed together discussing Plato’s Meno. The elements I want to call out include:
- The question: What answer the author is adressing
- The problem: What makes answering that question difficult
- The answer: What the author’s answer to that question is
As I mentioned at the end of class, the second of these can be the most difficult, and can be the last thing you figure out in working through a work, whereas the last, the ‘answer’, is often the easiest to figure out. In general, I think it is good practice to think of prompts like ‘Describe \(x\)’ as asking for more than just an answer to a question, but as the question, answer, and problem.
We also looked at:
- An objection: A challenge to the author’s answer (in this case to Socrates’ theory of recollection)
- A reply: A response on behalf of the author to the objection
2 Draft
Prompt: Discuss Meno’s paradox.
[setting] Meno’s paradox is a problem described by Meno in Plato’s Meno. [question] In Plato’s Meno, Socrates and Meno are discussing whether virtue is attained through teaching or exists only by nature. [problem] However, Meno raises the difficulty that learning seems to be impossible because it requires that we know what we don’t know before we come to know it. [stakes] If learning is impossible, and virtue is acquired through learning, then we can’t acquire virtue. [answer] Socrates responds that learning is possible because we have certain innate ideas that precede learning.
[objection] Socrates’ theory of recollection is implausible and non-verifiable.
[reply] Socrates never claims to believe the theory is literally true, only that by believing it to be true he is encouraged to find out the truth.
Question: In Plato’s Meno Socrates and Meno are discussing what virtue is. What is virtue?
Problem: Meno’s paradox
Meno attempts to define virtue four times, and Socrates shows him that each definition fails.
Meno then articulates a paradox. If I don’t know what something is, then I could not know whether I ever came to know about it. Thus, it seems, learning is impossible.
Stakes: If Meno’s paradox holds, then there will be no answer to the question what virtue is, supposing they don’t know what it is already.
The theory of recollection holds that all learning is recollection, and therefore that when I learn, I don’t pass from ignorance to knowledge, but rather recollect knowledge I already had. What are Socrates’ reasons for holding this?
- Literal: He believes the soul is immortal etc.
- Non-literal: He believes the soul has certain innate ideas (rationalism)
- Pragmatic: By believing the soul is immortal etc. he is encouraged to learn
Response: If the theory of recollection is true, then learning is possible. If learning is possible and virtue is acquired through learning, then it is possible to acquire virtue.