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Reflection of plato's philosophy
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Philosophical work by plato
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After admitting that he does not know what virtue is almost halfway through Plato’s Meno, Meno states a few premises involving the acquisition of knowledge, which coined the term Meno’s paradox. In this paradox Meno says that virtue or knowledge is impossible to learn because of it. Meno then questions Socrates on how they can find what virtue is if they can’t discover it which I believe Socrates resolves by stating the theory of recollection and how the theory of recollection shows one part of the premise false by conversing with the slave boy. Right after Socrates comments how they can both look for virtue, Meno gives him these questions: “How will you look for it, Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? How will you aim to search for something you do not know at all? If you should meet with it, how will you know that this is the thing you did not know (80d)?” This is Meno’s paradox which explains the discovery of knowledge is impossible and if you do not know what you are learning, and that you cannot discover it either. Meno states in his first premise that you either know what knowledge is or you don’t, and whether you do know it or not, you cannot discover what that piece of knowledge is. This, …show more content…
Seeing as both Socrates and himself do not know what virtue is, Meno declares that they are unable to recognize or even discover it. After that Socrates refutes by stating the theory of recollection, and the immortality of the soul. Since Socrates believes that a soul is immortal, any knowledge can be recollected, which is what the theory of recollection is. He proves this through Meno’s slave, who had no prior learning of math or geometry. Through a series of questions, the slave boy is able to determine all of the lengths of the squares that Socrates draws, which explains to Meno that virtue can be recollected if they take enough time to find the
Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own but rather aimed at bringing out the worst in his interlocutors.
Socrates was wise men, who question everything, he was found to be the wise man in Athens by the oracle. Although he was consider of being the wises man alive in those days, Socrates never consider himself wise, therefore he question everything in order to learned more. Socrates lived a poor life, he used to go to the markets and preach in Athens he never harm anyone, or disobey any of the laws in Athens, yet he was found guilty of all charges and sentence to die.
This quote can be used to argue what kind things he would say to our society by providing an example of what his beliefs are. He is saying that once we can only become philosophers we will be able to stop indulging ourselves with our senses and only use them when necessary. Socrates point view of philosophy is when one wants to acquire prudence and irrefutable truth, which was discussed in a classroom community among classmates, simply when wants continuously want to learn and can never be satisfied with what they know. By learning, what Socrates means is our soul 's recollecting knowledge that body hinders the soul from remembering. This is seen in Meno where Socrates shows Meno how a boy figuring out the answers to a question is actually recollecting the knowledge instead of learning something new. He would make a statement about our education system and what we currently see as knowledge what was we should see as knowledge. The way we should learn by his definition would be to have classroom discussions sessions as agreed upon by critical think by my classmates and myself in a philosophy course. Socrates would tell us how we would need to focus on recollecting and focus on feeding our soul instead of our bodies, how we would need to make major changes such as our use of technology for only necessary uses and not merely for mindless entertainment much like how we all use laptops, phones, and the
The paradox arises due to a number of assumptions concerning knowledge, inquiry and definition made by both Socrates and Meno. The assumptions of Socrates are:
This begins Socrates’ rapid firing of questions that ultimately confuse Meno. (72e-74b) His answers to each question show his confusion more and more. When Socrates asks him if justice [was] a virtue or is virtue, Meno could not immediately answer. (73e) When he does answer, however, he admits that justice is in fact a virtue, he begins to list many other virtues as well. This causes Socrates to explain that Meno may know what some virtues are but he has yet to explain the meaning of what virtue is.
Socrates says that it is also impossible for everyone to know that is right for the youth. He goes on to give an example of a horse. Socrates explains that only one person would be able to train horses correctly, a horse trainer. A horse trainer has been instructed in how to raise horses. A person walking on the road would not be able to train horses properly, because the would have no previous knowledge or experience ...
Socrates is extremely particular in his standards for a proper definition and believed that a proper definition of virtue should “provide paradigms or standards for deciding whether actions or persons are virtuous” that work in all possible scenarios. The main problem with Meno’s definitions is that Socrates is not concerned with “the meaning of ‘virtue’ which would apply to the virtue or excellence of men…but, with the nature of human virtue.” One who is capable of giving a good definition of virtue would be considered a moral
In this paper, I will investigate the reason Socrates proposes “recollection” and the way he proves it. My conclusion is the reason Socrates proposes “recollection” is trying to help Meno understand how to explain virtue, and shows Meno how to prove it. He asks one of Meno’s slave geometry questions to prove that our souls have all the knowledge we need to solve problems. Which means when we are answering questions, we are recollecting the knowledge inside our souls.
In the Meno, Plato addresses the question of virtue, what it is, how to obtain and if virtue can be taught. Meno came to conclusion after a long discussion with Socrates that it is impossible to know what virtue is. The Meno’x paradox states, “if one knows what virtue is, he does not need to search for it. However, if one does not know what virtue is, how can he search for it? He may not know he has it even when he gets it.”
Socrates explains that akrasia is not possible through his reasoning of doing something that is negative is the cause of ignorance. Socrates explains that we never subconsciously do what is bad (Aristotle on Weakness of Will).Ultimately, Socrates claims if one knows good, they will pursue it and that if one does what is wrong, it is done involuntarily out of ignorance (Arrington 18). When Socrates reasons and expresses his explanation in the Protagoras and Meno, the question of weakness of will is brought up and his reaso...
Socrates’ response to Meno does not include a solution but a bigger problem “ I have never met anyone else I thought did know”. Socrates unable to provide a solution; but rather states he has never been able to find anyone who has a clear definition of virtue or any term. As the conversation escalates into subjects that need certainty, Meno comes to the realization of a bigger problem. How do we obtain knowledge? Since we already posses some knowledge how do we know that knowledge is true and how did we come to possess knowledge? Meno indicates the problem of obtaining knowledge eventually becomes paradoxical. How can individuals learn new topics without having learned the ability to learn? We cannot obtain definitions of concepts if we have never had the certainty of our ability to learn. Meno shining a light on the fact that we are never certain of the reliability of new facts, even if we had background information on a subject. How can we confirm the truth of the information we would use to confirm new knowledge? Meno’s paradox is unsolvable because we have not developed a method of obtaining knowledge that contains a stepping-stone to knowledge. Which it seems impossible to have a stepping-stone since we do not know what knowledge is. Meno even tries to explain if we were to bump into reliable knowledge
To demonstrate Socrates’ theory, a slave boy was brought in. Knowing that this slave boy never had any training in geometry, Socrates asks him a geometric problem. In answering every questions Socrates asked, the slave boy eventually reached the correct answer. Above all, Socrates emphasized that he never taught the slave boy anything during the entire process. He only asked questions that led the slave boy to his own “recollection” of the topic discussed. Because the boy gave the correct answer at the end, Socrates was convinced of his theory of recollection.
When discussing specific knowledge, it is often hard to pin down an exact definition of what it is you are discussing. Often a concept or word will get thrown around so often that it will begin to be taken for granted and when pressed, a person may struggle to pin down specifically what it is they mean. Realizing this, Socrates often went out and attempted to fix these kinds of problems and find out what people actually knew, compared to what they just thought they knew. In the dialogues Euthyphro and Meno, Socrates attempts to pin down definitions for piety and virtue, respectively. In doing so, we are shown that the thinkers in question struggle to define these terms, and attempt to do so in vague terms that may vary heavily under different circumstances. What Socrates is attempting to find is one definitive definition of piety and virtue, what is called his One Form Requirement. Rather than defining something by classifying different parts that make it up, Socrates maintains the belief that piety and virtue both can be simplified into one specific form that describes exactly what makes all F actions F.
One of the problems in his argument is how he believes the soul cannot be taught anything because it knows all and just recollects prior knowledge, but then argues that virtue is a kind of knowledge and it can be taught. (Plato, 87c) This implies that Socrates believes that virtue can be taught to the soul and it’s not something that we are born with. His principal argument of the theory of recollection, tied with immortality of the soul contradicts his other idea that virtue can be taught since it is knowledge. This causes Socrates’ argument to become very questionable, and as a result, can create the following questions; How can virtue be taught to the soul if it’s supposed to know everything? If the soul actually knew everything, then it would know what virtue is. If it does not know everything, especially what virtue is, then does that imply that the soul is not immortal? Socrates agrees, in the beginning, with an idea that he heard wise people talk about in regards to the immortality of the soul. The idea is that the soul is immortal and can, at times, reborn but never destroyed. (Plato, 81b) When relating this idea to Socrates’ argument that the soul is eternal, therefore all knowing, and has been born multiple times, wouldn’t it have been able to know what virtue is, implying that it is part of our knowledge and it is something that we are all born with?
Socrates uses the word “recollection” extensively in the Phaedo dialogue, by this he is asserting that learning is simply recollecting knowledge. Socrates explains to Cebes, one of the philosophers present in the cell that day, that according to the theory, “we must at