MENO
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braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we
should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing
and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;--that is a theme upon
which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.

MENO: There again, Socrates, your words seem to me excellent.

SOCRATES: Then, as we are agreed that a man should enquire about that
which he does not know, shall you and I make an effort to enquire together
into the nature of virtue?

MENO: By all means, Socrates. And yet I would much rather return to my
original question, Whether in seeking to acquire virtue we should regard it
as a thing to be taught, or as a gift of nature, or as coming to men in
some other way?

SOCRATES: Had I the command of you as well as of myself, Meno, I would not
have enquired whether virtue is given by instruction or not, until we had
first ascertained 'what it is.' But as you think only of controlling me
who am your slave, and never of controlling yourself,--such being your
notion of freedom, I must yield to you, for you are irresistible. And
therefore I have now to enquire into the qualities of a thing of which I do
not as yet know the nature. At any rate, will you condescend a little, and
allow the question 'Whether virtue is given by instruction, or in any other
way,' to be argued upon hypothesis? As the geometrician, when he is asked
whether a certain triangle is capable being inscribed in a certain circle
(Or, whether a certain area is capable of being inscribed as a triangle in
a certain circle.), will reply: 'I cannot tell you as yet; but I will
offer a hypothesis which may assist us in forming a conclusion: If the
figure be such that when you have produced a given side of it (Or, when you
apply it to the given line, i.e. the diameter of the circle (autou).), the
given area of the triangle falls short by an area corresponding to the part
produced (Or, similar to the area so applied.), then one consequence
follows, and if this is impossible then some other; and therefore I wish to
assume a hypothesis before I tell you whether this triangle is capable of