Meno EP8 Meno's Paradox
from Understanding Plato Hosted by Laurence Houlgate
Meno suggests that there will never be a solution to the question "What is virtue?" because one either knows what virtue is or one does not know this. If one knows what virtue is, then there is no point in raising the question. If one does not know what virtue is, then one will not know whether one has found the correct answer. Socrates solves the paradox by suggesting that all learning is a process of recollecting what we already know (but had forgotten) in a previous life. He proves this by asking an ignorant boy a series of questions about the properties of a geometrical shape. The boy answers the questions successfully without ever having been told the answer.
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