Meno wants to know how people gain virtue: Is it acquired through education or by some other means? Socrates admits that he does not know what virtue is and has never found anyone who could define it. Meno suggests to Socrates that virtue is a person’s ability to govern a household or a state. However, after some questioning from Socrates, it becomes clear that virtue is not merely the talent to govern; it can also include health, wealth, and other good things. There are many virtues, but Socrates, as always, is not interested in the particulars. He wants to discover the essence of virtue: a general definition that encompasses all particular instances.
When Meno claims that virtue is the desire for honorable things and the power to attain them, Socrates undermines his thesis by concluding that, according to this definition, everyone is virtuous since everyone desires the good. Meno then revises his position, arguing that virtue is not just the desire for the good but the ability to attain it. Attaining the good, however, must be done honestly, thus raising the question of what honesty is. Honesty is itself a part of virtue. Socrates and Meno become stuck in a circle; they cannot make progress in defining virtue because each definition implicitly contains virtuous qualities.
This cycle reminds Socrates of a myth that religious leaders preach. The myth goes as follows: When a person dies, their immortal soul travels to another world, where it acquires knowledge of all things. Upon reincarnation, the soul forgets what it learned in that realm. Therefore, learning is an act of recollection, remembering things the soul once knew but has forgotten.
To test this hypothesis, Socrates asks Meno’s slave a geometry question that the slave has never been taught. The slave does not know that \(d^2 = 2a^2\), where \(d\) is the length of the diagonal of a square and \(a\) is the side length. Nevertheless, through a series of questions posed by Socrates, the slave is able to discover this theorem on his own.
If geometry can be taught through questioning, then perhaps virtue can also be taught. This suggests that virtue may be a form of knowledge. However, Socrates doubts that virtue is knowledge because, if it were, it could be taught, and teaching requires both teachers and students. Yet, there is no one in Athens who can teach virtue. Socrates and Meno never fully succeed in Socrates’ mission, but they do make progress in answering Meno’s question. If no one can teach virtue, then virtue is not gained through education, but is instead a divine gift.
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