MENO
Page: 26


MENO

by

Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett


PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Meno, Socrates, A Slave of Meno (Boy), Anytus.


MENO: Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or
by practice; or if neither by teaching nor by practice, then whether it
comes to man by nature, or in what other way?

SOCRATES: O Meno, there was a time when the Thessalians were famous among
the other Hellenes only for their riches and their riding; but now, if I am
not mistaken, they are equally famous for their wisdom, especially at
Larisa, which is the native city of your friend Aristippus. And this is
Gorgias' doing; for when he came there, the flower of the Aleuadae, among
them your admirer Aristippus, and the other chiefs of the Thessalians, fell
in love with his wisdom. And he has taught you the habit of answering
questions in a grand and bold style, which becomes those who know, and is
the style in which he himself answers all comers; and any Hellene who likes
may ask him anything. How different is our lot! my dear Meno. Here at
Athens there is a dearth of the commodity, and all wisdom seems to have
emigrated from us to you. I am certain that if you were to ask any
Athenian whether virtue was natural or acquired, he would laugh in your
face, and say: 'Stranger, you have far too good an opinion of me, if you
think that I can answer your question. For I literally do not know what
virtue is, and much less whether it is acquired by teaching or not.' And I
myself, Meno, living as I do in this region of poverty, am as poor as the
rest of the world; and I confess with shame that I know literally nothing
about virtue; and when I do not know the 'quid' of anything how can I know
the 'quale'? How, if I knew nothing at all of Meno, could I tell if he was
fair, or the opposite of fair; rich and noble, or the reverse of rich and
noble? Do you think that I could?

MENO: No, indeed. But are you in earnest, Socrates, in saying that you do
not know what virtue is? And am I to carry back this report of you to
Thessaly?

SOCRATES: Not only that, my dear boy, but you may say further that I have