Plato's Meno: Dialectic, Recollection, and the Critique of the Sophists

Vocabulary flashcards covering Plato's Meno (Lectures Part 1 and 2), focusing on elenchus, dialectic, the Theory of Recollection, Meno's three definitions of virtue, deductive arguments on teachability, and the critique of the Sophists.

Elenchus

Socrates' method of asking questions to reveal what someone does not know, without directly teaching them.

Dialectic

Plato's method of questioning that starts by asking 'What is X?' to clear up confusion and discover what something truly is.

Being

The core quality that all examples of a thing share, making it what it truly is.

Method of the Sophists

A rhetorical technique of arguing both sides of an issue to persuade an audience rather than discover the truth.

Meno's First Definition of Virtue

Listing different virtues for different people instead of defining what they all share.

"Swarm of Bees" Metaphor

Socrates' comparison showing that listing different examples of a quality fails to identify what they all have in common.

Meno's Second Definition of Virtue

The proposal that virtue is the ability to rule others, which Socrates rejects because ruling well requires other virtues like justice.

Meno's Third Definition of Virtue

The proposal that virtue is desiring good things and having the power to acquire them, which fails because acquiring goods justly already requires virtue.

Electric Ray (Torpedo Fish) Metaphor

Meno's comparison of Socrates to a fish that numbs and paralyzes the minds and words of those he questions.

The Problem of Knowledge

The paradox that one cannot search for what one does not know, because one would not know what to look for or recognize it when found.

Modus Tollens

A valid deductive inference pattern: Premise 1: $A \rightarrow B$; Premise 2: $\neg B$; Conclusion: Therefore, $\neg A$.

Argument That Virtue Can Be Taught (87c–89a)

The reasoning that virtue is knowledge because it requires wisdom to be good, and since knowledge can be taught, virtue can be taught.

Argument That Virtue Cannot Be Taught (89d–96

A deduction showing that because teachable subjects have teachers, and virtue lacks reliable teachers, virtue is not teachable.

Anytus

An Athenian who argues that Sophists cannot teach virtue, and who later helped put Socrates on trial.

Themistocles and Aristides

Virtuous Athenian statesmen cited to show that even great leaders could not teach virtue to their sons.

Knowledge versus Opinion (Stephanus 96e–98c)

Opinion is unstable belief that can easily shift, while knowledge is lasting understanding secured through dialectic.