PHL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Socratic Dialogue
Document Summary
Plato"s dialogues can be divided into three groups: the early socratic dialogues, the middle-period (where plato puts forwards his theory of forms and other theories; and his late dialogues, often technical and apparently self- critical. Plato"s meno is a transitional dialogue, designed to explore questions about the basis of socrates"s philosophical practice. The first section discusses whether virtue is teachable and works through a series of definitions of virtue proposed by meno. Unlike socratic dialogues, the meno doesn"t stop there. The remainder of the dialogue offers a kind of philosophical commentary on socratic ethics. In the second section, plato show you how to go on. Meno starts by asking whether virtue is teachable or the result of practice or possessed naturally. Socrates rejects the question on the grounds that it presupposes that they know what virtue is, which he disclaims: meno claims to know and falls into the socratic trap.
