The Plato Paradigm

Socrates continues to dwell on the similarities between episteme and orthe doxa - they are both good, and therefore beneficial, as are the men who have either of them. Socrates proceeds to recap the discussion from the time Meno gave up answering the question what arete is by returning to ask which of the four options is held by Socrates, concerning the type of thing arete is - teachable, exercisa...

I discuss the difference between correct opinion (orthē doxa) and understanding/knowledge (epistēmē), explaining why only understanding/knowledge is useful. Socrates, for his part, asserts his true belief that correct opinion is no worse than understanding/knowledge, and Meno confirms Socrates' belief, saying that Socrates is speaking correctly. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating...

Socrates uses the statues of Daedalus as a way to explain to Meno how opinions (doxai) differ from pieces of knowledge (epistemai). One episteme, according to this account, is one doxa bound by "a reasoning of cause" (aitias logismos). Socrates suggests that they had agreed to this during the discussion of recollection (anamnesis), which is patently false. Meno once again fails Socrates' attempt t...

Correct opinion (orthē doxa) and knowledge (epistēmē) are slightly distinguished by me, if not by the conversation between Socrates and Meno. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

Meno wonders why people regard knowledge as so much more valuable than opinion, given that correct opinion leads to the same results as knowledge. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

The infamous road to Larissa argument supporting the notion that orthodoxy (correct opinion) is as beneficial as knowledge, given that it leads to the same destination. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

Socrates tests Meno's ability to remember or "recollect" previous arguments in the conversation, but Meno is blissfully unaware of all the outrageous distortions Socrates perpetrates. Then it was prudence (phronesis) which was the guiding principle leading to acts being performed correctly and well by an individual, Now Socrates suggests that they were correct in thinking that good men could lead...

Socrates having established that there are no teachers or students of virtue, Meno wonders whether there are any good men at all, or if there are good men,  how they come about. It is the second question which Socrates begins to answer by returning to an apparent mistake they had made much earlier in claiming that people act correctly and well only when episteme (knowledge/understanding) is guidin...

Socrates finally concludes his argument demonstrating that neither sophists nor the "fine and good" think that virtue is something teachable. The number of times he asks Meno versions of this question throughout the argument suggests that Socrates would have liked Meno to notice one of the many problems in the argument. After completing the argument, we return to a consideration of the Theognis in...

Socrates concludes his quotations from Theognis, overtly to demonstrate that even an individual can believe that virtue is something teachable, but then (in the same poem), that virtue is not teachable. Apart from this point being philosophically redundant (it is enough that Meno is aware that he and the Many cannot decide whether sophists and good citizens are able to teach virtue or not), it is...

Socrates carries on the discussion about teachers of virtue by returning to the question whether virtue is teachable. Meno and the other politikoi are not alone in wavering on the question, since even Theognis contradicts himself in this very matter. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplat...

Socrates continues interrogating Meno about virtue being something teachable. Having agreed that virtue is not something teachable if the teachers of it disagree, and then Meno himself having shown that the sophists disagree among themselves, Meno fails to conclude the sophists are not  teachers of virtue. This has no bearing on the teachability of virtue, but we do learn that Meno has made no pro...

Anytus has just left, and Socrates and Meno are now free to say what they like about him. Socrates continues his demonstration that virtue is not something teachable, given that there are no teachers of it, as appears evident from his discussion with Anytus. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https:/...

Anytus leaves with a scarcely veiled threat that Socrates will get himself into trouble if he keeps badmouthing people. This is not so important as the fact that he is exemplifying what he said earlier about decent Athenian citizens making better those people who are prepared to be persuaded by them. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The...

Socrates demonstrates to Anytus inductively that that virtue of the Athenian citizen qua Athenian citizen is not something teachable. Themistocles, Aristides, Pericles, and Thucydides are all shown to have wanted to educate their sons, and that their sons were capable of learning, but that none of the sons ever acquired this particular arete. We'll have a look at the validity of this argument next...

Socrates begins to test Anytus' claim that any decent Athenian citizen can teach his own virtue (arete). He ensures that Anytus thinks Themistocles is a good Athenian citizen before asking him whether he taught his virtue to his son, Cleophontus. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatopar...

Anytus claims that decent ("fine and good") Athenians learn their virtue from earlier decent Athenians. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

Anytus rejects sophists as teachers of his arete, and points instead to decent Athenian citizens, any of whom could teach Meno to be better. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

It turns out that Anytus has no experience of sophists yet dislikes them all the same. Prompted by Socrates, Anytus states that the sophists aren't mad (presumably. because they make money out of deceiving people), but the youths who study with them are mad, the relatives who send them are madder, and the cities condoning their harmful practices are the maddest. Here I read through Platonic dialog...

Socrates effectively points out to Anytus that objecting to the sophists does not follow from the criteria they had agreed upon for a good teacher. They profess to teach, and they make lots of money from teaching, indicating that they have many satisfied customers. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at:...

Anytus is shocked to discover that Socrates thinks sophists are the people Meno should be sent to in. order to become virtuous like Anytus. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

Socrates has manoeuvred Anytus into agreeing that they should be looking for someone who claims to be able to teach the techne Meno wants to learn, and who already makes money from teaching that techne. Socrates equates sophia with arete and states that Meno wishes to learn a complex virtue which we, and presumbaly Antyus, see as comprising Anytus' own characteristic behaviours. Because of the cri...

Socrates suggests two criteria required to determine who are teachers worth sending Meno to. Anytus agrees to teachers being those: A. having a techne, B. making money. from the techne - but also A. promising to teach a techne, B. making money. from teaching the techne. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found...

Socrates begins his conversation with Anytus, with the overt purpose of searching for teachers of virtue. The sequence of questions follows the pattern "To become a good craftsman should one be sent to the craftsmen?", which at first sight is an odd question when it comes to searching for teachers of virtue. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I...

Socrates bemoans his failure to find a teacher of virtue. As luck would have it, Meno's host in Athens, Anytus, has just sat down with them, and Socrates begins to explain why Anytus will be able to help them. The father of Anytus, Anthemion, became rich from his trade at which he was an expert (a scholion tells us he was a tanner). Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commentin...