Meno

Menois aSocratic dialoguebyPlato. In it,Socratestries to determine the definition ofvirtue, or ratherarete, meaning virtue in general, rather than particular virtues, such as justice or temperance. The first part of the work is written in theSocratic dialectical style, and depictsMenoas being reduced to confusion oraporia. In response to Meno's paradox (or the learner's paradox), however, Socrates introduces positive ideas: the immortality of the soul, the theory of knowledge as recollection which Socrates demonstrates by posing a mathematical puzzle toone of Meno's slaves, the method of hypothesis, and, in the final lines, the distinction between knowledge and true belief.