Virtue in Plato's "Meno"

Analytical Essay # 113802

Literature > Greek and Roman
Philosophy > Ancient Greek

An analysis of how Socrates relates wisdom to virtue.

2,889 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2007 Bangladesh

Paper Summary:

This essay analyzes Plato's dialogue "Meno" and shows how it exemplifies the Socratic method. The paper explains that the original question is whether virtue can be taught or not and then looks at how Socrates examines all the ramifications of this question, and finally leaves it unanswered. Next, the paper looks at how a closer examination reveals that Socrates has answered a bigger question of how wisdom relates to virtue. The aim of the Socratic method is to overcome discursive antinomies, and thus throw light on essential truths. The particular truth brought to light in this dialogue is how wisdom leads to virtue, and that this wisdom is in the end a recollection of pre-existent knowledge. The paper covers the dialogue comprehensively, focusing on many of the finer details.

From the Paper:

"The Socratic method of enquiry has been squarely criticized through the ages. The mode of criticism leveled against it is that it is merely destructive, lacks coherence, and is unreasonably insistent on definition before any further enquiry. Typical is the opinion of the modern Greek scholar Hugh H Benson who puts it thus: "Socrates' view of definitional knowledge appears to recommend a foundational rather than a coherentist epistemology" (2000, p. 163). This paper argues to the contrary, that the aim of Socrates is not definition but rather direction. That the Socratic method is meant to induce a moral orientation to arguments that are otherwise merely discursive in nature. He deconstructs discursive reason, but this does not make the method destructive, for such reason is destructive par se, as Kant goes to great lengths to demonstrate (2001, p. 74). The argument focuses on the dialogue found in Plato's Meno, in which the issue in contention is whether virtue can be taught. Many opine that the result is inconclusive."

Sample of Sources Used:

Benson H. H. (2000) Socratic Wisdom: The Model of Knowledge in Plato's Early Dialogues. New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Hegel, G. F. W. (1995). Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Translated by E. S. Haldane, F. H. Simson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Kant I. (2001). Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Translated by J. W. Ellington. Boston: Hackett Publishing.
Kraut R. (1992). The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plato. (1875). The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by B. Jowett. London: Macmillan.