Study Questions for Plato’s Meno

1. Meno asks,” Can virtue be taught?”  Socrates steers the conversation to a question he thinks must be answered first: “What is virtue?”  Meno answers confidently at 71e.  What reason does Socrates give for rejecting this first definition?  (72a-73c)
2. Meno tries again at 73d.  What is his definition there, and what reasons does Socrates give for rejecting it?  (73d-74a)  (Hint: one of his reasons takes the form of a counter-example.)
3. Meno seems to be having a hard time understanding what Socrates is looking for, so Socrates uses some analogies to make it clearer.  He gives Meno definitions of shape (76a) and color (76d).  What’s his point?
4. Meno states a third definition at 77b.  What is it?
5. Socrates first attacks the first part of Meno’s definition (77c-78b).  What fault does he find with it?
6. How does he argue against the second part of Meno’s definition?  (78b-79e)
7. Meno says that Socrates questions have left him feeling “numb.”  Perhaps you can sympathize with him.  He then poses a question (at 80d).  This question has come to be known as “Meno’s paradox.”  What is it?
8. Socrates answer to this question takes the conversation away from its theme of virtue for several pages.  Socrates introduces the rather strange idea that learning is recollecting what one already knew in a previous life. He then tries to prove this doctrine by questioning one of Meno’s slave boys, asking questions that lead the boy to an understanding of a truth of geometry.  How is this supposed to prove the doctrine of recollection?  Do you think that the proof is successful? Do you think Socrates literally believes in reincarnation?
9. Meno asks (86d) to return to his original question about whether or not virtue can be taught.  Socrates reluctantly agrees and proposes to try out a hypothesis.  What is it?
10. How does Socrates argue that virtue is a form of knowledge (and, thus, teachable)? (87d-88d)
11. Socrates then says that, if virtue is knowledge, then there should be teachers and pupils of it. (89d-e) How does he then try to get Anytus (and then Meno) to admit that there are no teachers and pupils of virtue?  (89c-96c)
12. Socrates introduces a distinction between ‘knowledge’ and ‘true opinion’ (87a-98a). What is the difference?
13. How does Socrates then argue that virtue must be true opinion? (98c-99c)
14. Why does he then conclude that virtue must be neither learned, nor inborn, but instead a gift from the gods?
15. Is he serious about this?  What do you think is really the point of this dialogue?