The paradox
Stuck on defining virtue, Meno asks how one can search for what one does not know, or recognise it when found (80d). Socrates restates it as the eristic claim that a person can inquire neither into what he knows nor into what he does not know.
Recollection
Socrates answers that the soul is immortal and has learned everything, so seeking and learning are wholly recollection (81c-d).
The slave-boy scene
Asked for the side of a square double in area, an untutored slave boy first doubles the side, then tries one and a half, reaches perplexity (aporia), and through questioning finds the square on the diagonal (82b-85b). Socrates claims he only asked questions, so the knowledge was already within.
Interpretation and education
- Later the dialogue distinguishes true opinion from knowledge tied down by reasoning about the cause (97e-98a).
- The Phaedo uses recollection to argue for Forms and immortality.
- Educationally it is the model of Socratic questioning and discovery learning, often studied with Peters' liberal education.
References
- Plato. Meno. In J. M. Cooper (Ed.), Plato: Complete Works (G. M. A. Grube, Trans.). Hackett, 1997.
- 플라톤 (2009). 메논 (이상인 역). 아카넷.
- Fine, G. (1992). Inquiry in the Meno. In R. Kraut (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato (pp. 200-226). Cambridge University Press.
- Scott, D. (2006). Plato's Meno. Cambridge University Press.