Plato’s Writing Meno – Book/Movie Report – astang
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Plato’s Writing Meno
Plato’s writing, Meno, is structured as a dialogue between Meno and Socrates. Meno asks Socrates whether virtue can be taught and this starts their discussion. Socrates then starts to break down his question and prompts Meno with questions in order to make him brainstorm. Meno tries to come up with definitions, but Socrates always finds away to prove them false. This leads them to believe that it might not even be possible to define virtue. This then makes them think that one cannot find something unless he or she already knows what that thing is. Socrates and Meno conclude their discussion by realizing they do not know what virtue is, but they now know that they do not know.

While trying to determine the definition of a virtue, Socrates comes up with the idea that if virtue can be taught, then there are teachers of virtue. There are many things Socrates and Meno discussed before he came up with this idea. First of all, they decided that virtue is knowledge. They came to this conclusion because they know that knowledge and virtue are both good things. Therefore, virtue must be knowledge. Then, because knowledge can be taught and virtue is knowledge, it must be possible to teach virtue. In order for something to be taught, there must be a teacher. So, it is logical for Socrates and Meno to believe that because virtue can be taught, there are teachers of virtue. But, they realized that although this argument is logical it is not true because they know there are no teachers of virtue. Virtue is so important that if it could be taught there would definitely be teachers. So, due to the fact there are no teachers of virtue, virtue must not be able to be taught.

Although the reasoning Socrates comes up with is logical, there are still reasons one could doubt his idea. Socrates thinks that if virtue can be taught, then there are teachers of virtue. One part of reaching this conclusion was that virtue is good. But, their whole discussion started because they couldn’t define virtue. So how do they know virtue is good? If it turns out virtue is actually bad, Socrates argument is no longer valid. Also, just because something can be taught, does not necessarily mean that there are teachers. To put it in other words, just because someone has the ability to bake a cake, does not mean they are baking a cake. With this logic, Socrates cannot assume that there are teachers of virtue. But although these doubts are valid,

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“Plato’s Writing Meno” EssaysForStudent.com. 04 2017. 2017. 04 2017 < "Plato’s Writing Meno." EssaysForStudent.com. EssaysForStudent.com, 04 2017. Web. 04 2017. < "Plato’s Writing Meno." EssaysForStudent.com. 04, 2017. Accessed 04, 2017. Essay Preview By: astang Submitted: April 23, 2017 Essay Length: 721 Words / 3 Pages Paper type: Book/Movie Report Views: 373 Report this essay Tweet Related Essays Analysis of Plato's "the Allegory of the Cave" Analysis of Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" The moist air of the cave hovers in a homeostatic manner around the manТs conditioned skin. He 1,243 Words  |  5 Pages Does It Mean the Quality of Writing We may have some problems when we read a text which is difficult for us. In this case, our ability to understand the text is 1,431 Words  |  6 Pages A Review of Plato’s Meno A Review of Plato’s Meno Plato presents in his dialogue, titled Meno, the distinction between genuine knowledge and true opinion. In the text, he refers 1,215 Words  |  5 Pages Plato's Meno Introduction Plato's "Meno" is about a dialogue which takes place between Meno, a nobleman from Thessaly and Socrates the great philosopher from Athens. The other 1,675 Words  |  7 Pages Similar Topics Analysis of Platos Justice Plato Vs Aristotle Get Access to 89,000+ Essays and Term Papers Join 209,000+ Other Students High Quality Essays and Documents Sign up © 2008–2020 EssaysForStudent.comFree Essays, Book Reports, Term Papers and Research Papers Essays Sign up Sign in Contact us Site Map Privacy Policy Terms of Service Facebook Twitter

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Plato’S Writing Meno And Writing Meno. (July 6, 2021). Retrieved from https://www.freeessays.education/platos-writing-meno-and-writing-meno-essay/