Plato's Meno is the dialogue that best illustrates the philosophical attitude. Meno arrives confident of who he believes he knows, and leaves full of doubts, closer to learning than when he entered.
The question that changes everything
Meno wants to discuss whether virtue can be taught. Before beginning, Socrates asks the question that reorganizes the debate: "But what is virtue?". Meno responds without hesitation, with a list: a man's virtue is one, a woman's another, a slave's yet another. You are satisfied.
Socrates smiles and begins to work. Within minutes, Meno realizes that his answer was a catalog of examples, not a definition. He knew when virtue appears, not what it is, and the difference between the two is immense.
The torpedo
Frustrated, Meno compares Socrates to a torpedo fish, which numbs whoever it touches. Socrates accepts the image on one condition: it is only compared to the torpedo if he himself is also numb. "It is not because I am free from doubts that I put others in doubt; on the contrary, I am also in doubt." He does not destroy Meno, he frees him from the false certainty that prevented him from seeking.
What is virtue, after all?
The clue the dialogue offers is that virtue is a stable disposition toward good, formed by exercise, just as vice is a stable disposition toward evil. You don't get there by jumping to the answer: you get there by first understanding the object of the question.
Read the entire Meno, no more than forty pages, and observe not what Socrates concludes, but how he asks. He's on our list recommended readings.
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See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
What is the Meno dialogue about?
Meno wants to know if virtue can be taught. Socrates responds with another question, what is virtue, and shows that one cannot discuss whether something is taught without first knowing what that something is.
Can virtue be taught, according to the Meno?
The dialogue does not provide a simple answer. The point is the method, and the definition of virtue as a stable disposition toward good, cultivated by exercise.
What is the torpedo in the Meno?
It is the image that Meno uses for Socrates, compared to a torpedo fish that numbs whoever touches it. Socrates accepts the comparison only if he himself is also numb, that is, in doubt along with the other.
Continue: What is the philosophical attitude · What is Socrates' maieutics? · Veritas est adaequatio: truth as correspondence
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