Paper Sample on Socrates and Meno Debate Virtue: Is It Teachable?

Introduction

Socrates dialogued with Meno concerning whether virtue can get taught. Socrates proposes that they must seek the definition of morality before divulging on the topic. Meno, on the other hand, submits that there exist various forms of virtue depending on individuals. Socrates disagrees metaphorically, terming the definition of a swarm of bees. He refers to those virtues as different bees (Castagnoli, 2018). However, Socrates remained determined to understand the quality these figurative bees have in common. Meno goes ahead to claim that morality entails the ability to rule over others, a notion that Socrates denies on the basis that it cannot exist that children and slaves reign over people. Also, virtuous control has the aspect of justice, which makes Meno deduce that virtue resembles just means. Meno compromises to Socrates' line of argument that fairness remains a method of morality.

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Meno, under pressure from Socrates, tries to derive meaning using shape and color. Socrates offers a direct response of form as the boundary of an object, and an intricate account of color in the style of the scholars that signifies their meaningless posturing. Meno retries to provide the meaning of virtue, proposing that it entails needing better possessions and possessing the authority to secure them, but only if the individual does so impartially (Castagnoli, 2018). The limitation of this definition involves the incorporation of the term 'justice.' Under the challenge of using 'justice' to define virtue, Meno symbolizes Socrates to a torpedo fish that freezes whatever it gets into contact. Socrates has made Meno numb, and he questions how they will obtain the answer to their problem if they do not understand what their query seeks to find.

Theory of Recollection

At this point, Socrates introduces his theory of recollection. He asserts that education does not refer to discerning something novel, but relatively reminiscing something the soul previously had knowledge of before birth and has since lost memory (Castagnoli, 2018). To illustrate his philosophy, Socrates invites one slave boy working for Meno to compute the length of a square whose area equals twice that of a square with sides of two feet. Two attempts from the slave boy prove wrong. However, Socrates guides the boy to acknowledge that the new square will have sides equal to the diagonal of the first square he drew (the one with two feet).

Socrates guides the slave boy to this conclusion without explaining the formula he applied, forcing the young man to reason individually. Socrates concludes that since the boy could respond positively to his challenge without prior knowledge or teaching, he must have recollected what he initially knew (Castagnoli, 2018). Thus, Socrates assumes the theory of recollection from the slave boy's ability to solve the geometric problem without receiving any teaching. Under this paper, the analysis of Meno's paradox about the inquiry that states that there exists no means of inquiring into something that you do not know since you do not know how to begin. Also, there is no way to examine something you already know since you already know the question. Such a paradox results in the conclusion that inquiry remains an impossibility. The purpose of this paper involves examining Socrates's theory of recollection and whether he adequately defended this theory.

Discussion on Socrates' Theory of Recollection

Socrates' suggestion that knowledge comes from recollection describes the form of human experience and redefines what people consider as knowledge. Socrates' argument does not border what most people primarily find knowledge. Previous occurrences reported in the media does not mean that people start seeing new things they had disremembered. Humans get a clue of what matters as information in the discrepancy Socrates pulls near the conclusion of the conversation between true belief and knowledge (Benitez & Ley, 2017). The peculiarity denotes that persons can remain assertive in deliberating something only if they can interpret or substantiate their understanding.

Meno's slave boy may have predicted the solution to the mathematical problem at the inception. However, the surety remains that he solved the problem systematically, guaranteeing no faults through the process. Such a category of demanding rationalization relates only to topics that entail static, mental units that do not attract inaccuracies and notions of daily experiences, such as science and mathematics (Benitez & Ley, 2017). The information people derive from media, such as print and digital media, cannot qualify to aggregate to more than true certainty. Socrates's assumption that knowledge exists as a recollection remains challenging and audacious, but it encompasses several complications. Issues from Socrates' theory involves how the slave boy arrives at his answer to the problem. Socrates stimulates the slave boy with leading questions through statements couched in the form of questions.

Socrates debatably gives the boy the correct response instead of permitting him to work it out alone. Some people may argue that the slave boy arrived at the correct answer individually. It remains debatable that he did so through the recollection of initially possessed knowledge or that which he had before birth, as Socrates argues (Benitez & Ley, 2017). Some scholars can argue that the slave boy does not initiate suppressed knowledge so much as concealed aptitude. Socrates adopts a supposition that the slave boy reflexively absorbs a set of details instead of dynamically learning how to compute the geometry mathematically. Scholars may also assert that the principle of knowledge as a remembrance does not clarify how people come to understand things (Benitez & Ley, 2017). Besides, one can question how people obtained such knowledge if it came to them before birth. One example in real life about the recollection theory involves observing a circle and reminding oneself that there exists something as flawless as a circle.

Explanation of Socrates' Theory of Recollection

There exist two theses in Socrates' theory of recollection, an ontological and epistemological argument. The epistemological case involves the reason that entails a kind of knowledge that surpasses the ability to create opinions. Also, this kind of experience cannot get abolished by removing the contradiction among views (Marshall, 2019). The epistemological thesis exemplifies reason as a distinctive form of thinking. Motive encompasses the custody of definite ideas that have significance and incongruity. The knowledge causes the capacity to entice particular deductions. For example, an individual with the perception of human beings recognizes what it feels to remain rational and hence the fact that mortals result from being human.

The ontological thesis involves the presence of the soul and its association with the body. According to the argument, personality remains a tenacious matter whose reality does not seem reliant on the body (Marshall, 2019). The soul survives before entering a form and will exist to occur after departure from the figure. The theory suggests that people can transform themselves to gain the knowledge needed for a better life if they eradicate their confusion about ethics and morality. The theory further, asserts that humans can exclude their confusion by removing irregularity in their philosophies. The method of recollection claims that certain knowledge belongs to motive (Marshall, 2019). Besides, the information does not get attained in practice, and that although such an understanding cannot get misplaced, it can get concealed by deceitful dogmas learned in involvement.

From this theory, the following inferences can be drawn: wrong views about moral problems block intelligence, exterminating variation remove untruthful opinions, and the question-and-answer approach abolishes contradiction (Marshall, 2019). Although the theory of recollection offers the start of a means to make Socrates's logic and his passion for knowledge, the example of the geometrical concepts does not stipulate that knowledge belongs to reason. Therefore, it remains unclear how being forced into contradiction leaves a person with the wisdom needed for better welfare.

One of the limitations of Socrates's theory of recollection involves his statement that the soul has a sense of complete forms that can be recalled if asked the right questions. Still, it does not usually seem true for non-material and abstract forms like justice and beauty (Marshall, 2019). The soul does not automatically allow people to remember concepts of shapes, but just their delineations generated by their minds, parting ways up to own belief instead of being fundamentals. Also, Socrates does not explain why the soul forgets everything and makes the mind remember them later instead of retaining knowledge throughout life.

Conclusion

The questioning of the slave boy does not prove Socrates's theory of recollection since his line of questioning seemed leading, and all he wanted to entail was the boy's approval of his point. The interrogation did not prove that the boy tried to recollect the information, but it looked like Socrates led him to the answer, and then pretended that the boy had solved it. The examples Socrates gave to prove his points had many loopholes. Besides, some cases signified that the theory could not apply. It seems that people draw off past experiences to arrive at new deductions, and not recall prior information never taught to them.

References

Benitez, R., & Ley, J. (2017). Interactive memory and recollection in Plato’s Meno. www.dspace2.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/handle/2328/37386

Castagnoli, L. (2018). The possibility of inquiry: Meno's paradox from Socrates to Sextus. www.read.dukeupress.edu/the-philosophical-review/article-abstract/127/2/225/133784

Marshall, M. (2019). Socrates’ defensible devices in Plato’s Meno. Theory and Research in Education, 17(2), 165-180. www.journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1477878519862544