Summary Of Meno By Socrates

Meno initiates this dialogue and asks Socrates about the nature of virtue. He wonders if virtue is taught or ingrained in a person by birth. Socrates stops him; he tells Meno he does not know what virtue is and therefore cannot tell him if it can be taught or not. So, Socrates begins to question Meno to have him explain virtue. First, Meno establishes virtue by dissecting it by who possesses it; Socrates clarifies that if all humans possess virtue there must be a common thread. So, Socrates uses shapes and colors to lead Meno to the correct answer. Meno fails to get the correct answer, but he appears to get closer to the mark. Rather than proposing that men, women, and children all have different virtues, Meno supposes that maybe everyone