Socrates Universal

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The relationship between the universal and the particular permeates our entire reality and all of our experiences with the objective world. The universal has been a long-pondered object of discourse dating back to and preceding the advent of western philosophy and metaphysics (citation needed). While even the very existence of the universal is held in contention (citation needed) it can be defined (universalized) as the quality which unites particulars, and inversely the particular can be defined as any instance of a universal. For example, if we have two daffodils and two lemons, all four objects are united by the universal property yellow. The daffodils are united by the universal type of flowers, but are also separated as two particular …show more content…

In a number of Plato’s dialogues one can observe Socrates engaging with interlocuters in his powerful dialectical style known as elenchus. This would usually involve Socrates attempting to elicit the truth about some universal, such as justice or piety by asking a series of questions. Then he would systematically refute his opponent’s answers by way of rational analysis. In “Meno”, the eponymous character first asks Socrates if virtue can be taught. Socrates replies that he can’t answer this question because he doesn’t know what virtue is, and that “I have never known of any one else who did, in my judgment.”. To this Meno scoffs and attempts to ridicule Socrates. Eventually Socrates goads Meno into attempting to define what the universal definition of virtue is. Rather than properly answering this question Meno instead enumerates many particular examples of what he believes virtue is but never puts forth a single unifying definition. Through this line of questioning, Socrates ultimately proves that Meno knows no better what virtue is than anybody else, and as such has no right interrogating him about whether or not it can be taught. This is a recurring theme in Plato’s dialogues. Socrates is in search of the unifying truth of the universal, but is confronted only with the fragmentary insight of the

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