Study Questions
Why might we say that Socrates' references to the Sophists as good
candidates for teachers of virtue are not entirely serious?
Socrates needs to set up the Sophists as potential teachers of knowledge,
primarily because it is essential to his argument that we admit that they
fail in this purpose. Socrates is pushing his own, new kind of knowledge,
which emphasizes lasting definitions of concepts rather than the wordplay
and rhetoric for which the Sophists have become known. Meno and
Anytus help him in this task--Meno is a follower of the Sophist
teacher Gorgias, and so when Meno fails to define virtue, the failure
extends by implication to Sophists generally. Anytus hates the Sophists
for the reason (popular at that time) that they seem to distract their
followers from worldly affairs. Socrates would wholeheartedly agree,
except that he also wants to emphasize knowledge over worldly practice.
Thus, in suggesting the Sophists to Anytus, Socrates is seeking to
discredit both the Sophists' and Anytus' own philosophies of virtue
(namely, that virtue is passed on from gentleman to gentleman). Thus, we
can never take Socrates' apparently naive references to the Sophists at
face value here.
What metaphor does Socrates use in reply to Meno's first attempt to define
virtue? What error does this metaphor point out?
Socrates compares Meno's initial definition of virtue to a swarm of bees,
since Meno has offered not a single definition of virtue but rather a
"swarm" of individual virtues. Socrates then deftly uses this comparison
to show Meno what he is after--this swarm of bees, he suggests, might
differ slightly in shape or size, but surely there is something that makes
them all "bees." Similarly, Socrates is after what makes all individual,
different virtues, "virtues."
What lesson does Socrates draw from past examples of famous fathers and
sons?
Socrates brings up famous pairs of fathers and sons in order to convince
Anytus (who, as an Athenian conservative, thinks largely in terms of
aristocratic tradition) that virtue is never taught (and so probably
cannot be taught). Each of the famously virtuous fathers Socrates brings
up raised a son or sons who turned out badly. Surely, Socrates argues, if
virtue could be taught it would have been taught by these best of men to
their beloved sons. But apparently it wasn't, so we may assume that
virtue cannot be taught.
Describe the Socratic elenchus and its purpose.
What is an eidos in the Platonic sense? How is the term used
differently here than in later dialogues?
Who were the Sophists, and why do Socrates and Plato dislike them?
What are two mistakes does Meno makes about the nature of a definition?
How does Socrates define shape and color? Contrast the style of these two
definitions.
What are Socrates' objections to Meno's definition of virtue as the desire
for beautiful things and the power to acquire them?
What paradox do Meno and Socrates face with regard to seeking what they do
not know? How does Socrates answer this paradox?
Describe the general steps in Socrates' examination of Meno's slave.
What lesson does Socrates draw from the examination of the slave?
What are Socrates' two "hypotheses" about whether virtue can be taught?
What is the relationship between virtue and knowledge in the Meno?
What is the difference between knowledge and true opinion? How does
Socrates illustrate this difference?
Why does Socrates quote Theognis?
What have Socrates and Meno concluded about virtue by the end of the
dialogue?
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