Interlocutor Vs Meno

First of all, Meno demonstrates Socrates's effort to guide his interlocutor to achieve thorough understanding of virtue and what his interlocutor actually received. Socrates's questioner is Meno, who is a young man trying to engage in unethical military and political affairs. Very well absorbed in his aristocratic origin, Meno also has a fierce pride in the ideas on virtue that he acquired from Gorgias, a sophist who focuses on the teaching of rhetoric and the external representation of knowledge. Meno started the conversation with a burning question: "Can you tell me, Socrates, can virtue be taught?" (Meno, 70a) This question suggests his fixed focus and is the primary thing that he cares about in the conversation with Socrates. To Meno's
great surprise, Socrates admits that he does not know what virtue is. Not long after satisfaction fills Meno, Socrates asks him to give his own definition of virtue. Without much hesitation, Meno states, "It is not hard to tell you, Socrates" (Meno, 71e) and lists a collection of disparate examples of virtue for men, women, and children ... Nonetheless, they are just bits and pieces of virtue, without a universal and complete definition. In his similar attempt, Meno makes another mistake by using the term to be defined in the definition itself. As Meno supposes that virtue is the ability to acquire beautiful things, Socrates points out that such acquisition is virtuous only if it is just. But if justice is a virtue, it cannot be used in the definition of virtue. Meno is confused again. What Socrates is trying to do here is highly ambitious. He is trying to expose the absence of knowledge in the people, who believe firmly and speak confidently that they know, while they in fact know nothing. Does Meno understand his inadequacies in thinking and reasoning? Not yet. However, Meno certainly feel the effects of Socrates's rational refutation mentally and physically. He characterizes Socrates as a "broad torpedo fish", which "makes anyone who comes close and touches it feel numb", and Meno utters, "both my mind and my tongue are numb, and I have no answer to give you" (Meno, 80b) This is a significant accomplishment in the dialogue as Meno now realizes that he does not truly know what virtue is. He knows that virtue is important because it will help him attain everything that he aspires to - power, respect, and wealth. He also understands that it is missing, but he reaches a paradox. "A man cannot search either for what he knows - since he knows it, there is no need to search - nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for." (Meno, 80e) The key to this paradox is the equivocation in "what you do not know" or "what you are looking for". It can mean either the question you wish to answer or the answer to that question. We can consider the following question: "Is it possible for you to know what you don’t know?" In one sense, the answer is “no”, since you can’t both know and not know the same thing. In another sense, the answer is “yes", since you can know the questions you don’t have the answers to. At this point, Meno already gives up his search for virtue because he has no hope of finding it. As a result, Socrates decides to resolve the paradox by revealing that learning is indeed recollection. He explains that learning truth is really a matter of the soul recollecting what it has learned before its current human birth. To illustrate with a real example, Socrates questions Meno's slave boy, who has no prior knowledge of geometry, to solve a geometric problem. This instance indicates three obstacles to learning found in Meno. Firstly, Meno thinks that the definition of virtue is obvious, and he can easily expound it, which is actually more sophisticated than he originally believes.
Secondly, Meno formulates a broad and imperfect definition. He regards virtue as the acquisition of beautiful things in the context of a type of virtue - justice. Thirdly, Meno failed to look, which uncovers his dangerous hold of self-esteem. He is only concerned with a specific and corollary question: "can virtue be taught?” rather than searching for the answer to the original and ultimate question: "what is virtue?” After observing the unchangeable nature of Meno, Socrates uses his last attempt to differentiate between true knowledge and right opinion, which can lead to similar action and outcomes. His vital note is that right opinion is easy to lose, but true knowledge can be recollected at any time. A person can listen to another's teaching without pondering and assume that he knows the knowledge behind it, while he only possesses transient right opinion, like Meno's receipt of Gorgias's ideas. However, he will never grasp the real knowledge, which will encompass all specific situations and stay within an industrious, pensive, and open
mind. To sum up, after the different stages of exploration with Socrates, Meno obtains a crucial awareness that he does not know what virtue truly is, and what virtue cannot be. Although Meno fails to go on a search with Socrates because of his close-mindedness and fixed belief, Meno is at least conscious of his own ignorance and takes a step closer to true knowledge.
Secondly, the Apology provides us with the true image of Socrates, spoken in his own attempt to answer the question: "who is Socrates?" The word Apology is a transliteration of the Greek apologia, which means defense.
In this dialogue, Socrates is attempting to defense himself at the trial and prove his innocence, while others are trying to put him to death for introducing strange gods and corrupting the youth. Socrates's first sentence sets the tone and direction for the whole dialogue. Socrates, in addressing the men of Athens, states that he almost forgets who he is because of
the
"persuasive" and "hardly true" speeches of his accusers. This dialogue will thus be a kind of "recollecting" by Socrates of who he is. The first "charges" against Socrates arose from general biases that surrounded him over the years. These general accusations were that Socrates "busies himself studying things in the sky and below the earth" and "makes the worse into the stronger argument" (Apology, 19c). These false images of Socrates arose because people misunderstand his true activity. Socrates explains this activity by relating a story about the Delphic Oracle. A friend of Socrates, Chaerephon, went to the Oracle and asked the priestess "Who is the wisest of mortals?" and the priestess replied: "Socrates is the most wise." (Apology, 21a). When Socrates heard this he was surprised, since he thought of himself as "most ignorant." With all his modesty and devotion, he sought to show the saying wrong by finding someone wiser than he is. He began to question a variety of people, including politicians, poets, and craftsmen. In each encounter the person made a claim that he was in possession of some kind of wisdom or absolute knowledge, although he did not possess the true knowledge inside. The interlocutors would soon be numb and perplexed as Meno and accuse Socrates of influencing them. After verifying the saying of the God, Socrates became aware of the truth. It can be interpreted that Socrates was most wise because he was aware of his ignorance, and, in a profound sense, those around Socrates, those who claimed ”knowledge" in many different aspects, were unaware of their own ignorance. In the course of Socrates' verification of the Delphic Oracle, many people had their beliefs and values questioned and cast into doubt. The response of many to this experience was confusion and anger, which took the form of a general resentment against Socrates over the years. The second charges made by Meletus and Anytus, his accusers, are that Socrates was guilty of corruption of the youth and impiety, with a demand of death penalty. Socrates begins a dialogue with his accuser Meletus and defends himself by practicing his art. Meletus says that Socrates is the person in Athens who is responsible for the corruption of the youth. Yet it is absurd to say that only Socrates corrupts the youth. This implies that everyone else helps the youth; nonetheless, just as there are few horse trainers, there are few who really "train" the youth. Contrary to what Meletus asserts, Socrates is one of these "trainers." Socrates next takes up the charge of Impiety. Since Socrates believes in divine spirits, it follows that he believes in divinities. Socrates, far from being an impious corruptor of the youth, is actually a blessing sent by the gods. To illustrate this, Socrates likens himself to a gadfly. Just as a gadfly constantly agitates a horse to prevent it from becoming sluggish and going to sleep, Socrates, by moving around the city and stirring up conversations in the marketplace, prevents the Athens from becoming sluggish, careless, and ignorant. Ultimately, Socrates' whole life was a service to the city, stemming from a pious response to the saying of the gods. This is the deepest and most powerful refutation of all the charges. Although Socrates was still sentenced to death, his speech provided us with a faithful representation of Socrates and his beliefs. Socrates is defending not only himself and his values but also philosophy and the search for ultimate truth in general. Socrates is the representation of the invincible desire to search for meaning and the fundamental knowledge, despite any formidable obstacle including death.
In summary, using the two dialogues Meno and the Apology, I first examine Socrates's method to produce a truthful and universal definition of virtue and what Meno actually perceives, and second analyze the thoughtful, determined and devoted image of Socrates, who stands for the essence of philosophy. Socrates's icon reminds us that the philosophical mission is attainable as long as a person tries his best, engages in deep thinking, and is willing to sacrifice. For each of us, acquiring the understanding that one does not know is already a remarkable achievement; however, in order to obtain the ultimate truth, one will need to take a crucial step and carry out the search for what is missing.