Categoria: Mênon

Men. And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know ? What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry ? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know ? Soc. I know, Meno, what you…

Men. There will be no difficulty, Socrates, in answering your question. Let us take first the virtue of a man — he should know how to administer the state, and in the administration of it to benefit his friends and harm his enemies ; and he must also be careful not to suffer harm himself.…

Men. If you want to have one definition of them all, I know not what to say, but that virtue is the power of governing mankind. Soc. And does this definition of virtue include all virtue ? Is virtue the same in a child and in a slave, Meno ? Can the child govern his…

Men. Well then, Socrates, virtue, as I take it, is when he, who desires the honourable, is able to provide it for himself ; so the poet says, and I say too — Virtue is the desire of things honourable and the power of attaining them. Soc. And does he who desires the honourable also…

Men. O Socrates, I used to be told, before I knew you, that you were always doubting yourself and making others doubt ; and now you are casting your spells over me, and I am simply getting bewitched and enchanted, and am at my wits’ end. And if I may venture to make a jest…

Soc. And they say — mark, now, and see whether their words are true — they say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is termed dying, and at another time is born again, but is never destroyed. And the moral is, that a man ought to…

Soc. And might there not be another square twice as large as this, and having like this the lines equal ? Boy. Yes. Soc. And of how many feet will that be ? Boy. Of eight feet. Soc. And now try and tell me the length of the line which forms the side of that…

Soc. What do you say of him, Meno ? Were not all these answers given out of his own head ? Men. Yes, they were all his own. Soc. And yet, as we were just now saying, he did not know ? Men. True. Soc. But still he had in him those notions of his…