Socrates And Meno Comparison
Meno and Socrates are very different characters. Meno seems to be really into his own knowledge and assumed expertise, while Socrates reserves himself and his pride by accepting that he knows nothing and humbled himself enough to accept new information and examine every detail to acquire the very best conclusion. They discuss the idea of virtue and the ways to attain it. While virtue is really hard to define, and we only know that it has something to do with knowledge and way of living, Meno by Plato expresses very well the idea of learning within oneself and being happy with your life to achieve “happiness” or virtue. Meno starts the discussion by stating that he knows what virtue is and how to acquire it. He makes claims of what virtue is and the ways to attain it, like the idea that i can be taught. An example that rejects this claim is that of children
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“ ... you are exactly like the flat sting-ray that one meets in the sea. Whenever anyone comes into contact with it, it NUMBS him and that is the sort of thing you seem to be doing to me now. My mind and my lips are literally numb and I have nothing to reply to you. Yet I have spoken about virtue hundreds of times, held forth often on the subject in front of large audiences, and very well too, or so I thought. Now I can't even say what it is." (Meno 80a.) In reality, Socrates didn’t tell Meno what virtue was, but instead he told him what it wasn’t: virtue is not knowledge. Socrates concludes that he doesn't know the meaning and neither does the “expert”. The whole debate is just Meno suggesting ideas and Socrates shutting them down. Meno shows us his lack of wisdom by assuming he has the answer while at the same time Socrates shows his maturity by admitting that he knows nothing about the subject and accepts that he
“ ... you are exactly like the flat sting-ray that one meets in the sea. Whenever anyone comes into contact with it, it NUMBS him and that is the sort of thing you seem to be doing to me now. My mind and my lips are literally numb and I have nothing to reply to you. Yet I have spoken about virtue hundreds of times, held forth often on the subject in front of large audiences, and very well too, or so I thought. Now I can't even say what it is." (Meno 80a.) In reality, Socrates didn’t tell Meno what virtue was, but instead he told him what it wasn’t: virtue is not knowledge. Socrates concludes that he doesn't know the meaning and neither does the “expert”. The whole debate is just Meno suggesting ideas and Socrates shutting them down. Meno shows us his lack of wisdom by assuming he has the answer while at the same time Socrates shows his maturity by admitting that he knows nothing about the subject and accepts that he