Handout on Plato’s “Meno” #2
I. Arguments:
An argument is a chain of _______________________ from a set of statements – called the
_______________________ – to another statement – called the _______________________.
A. Arguments are either _______________________ or _______________________.
1. A _______________________ argument is one in which it’s
_______________________ for the premises to be true but the conclusion
_______________________.
Argument A is _______________________:
Premise 1: All dogs are mammals.
Premise 2: All mammals have fur.
Conclusion: All dogs have fur.
Note, however, that an argument can be valid even if its premises are
_______________________. Thus argument B is also ____________________:
Premise 1: All fish are mammals.
Premise 2: All mammals have feathers.
Conclusion: All fish have feathers.
2. An _______________________ argument is one in which it’s
_______________________ for the premises to be true but the conclusion false.
Argument C is ____________________________:
Premise 1: All dogs are mammals.
Premise 2: All mammals have fur.
Conclusion: All mammals are dogs.
B. Arguments are also either _______________________ or _______________________.
1. A _______________________ argument is a _______________________ argument,
all of whose premises are _______________________.
Thus argument A is _______________________.
2. An _______________________ argument is an argument that’s not
_______________________; thus an unsound argument either is
_______________________, has at least one _______________________ premise, or
_______________________.
Thus argument B is _______________________, since it contains at least one false
premise (even though it’s valid).
And argument C is _______________________, since it is invalid (even though the
premises are true).
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II. Meno’s argument (borrowed from the Sophists) that learning is impossible:
A. Different kinds of “knowing”:
In understanding the discussion between Socrates and Meno, it’s important to see what they
mean by “knowing” and “learning”. Both terms have several different meanings:
1. _______________________ (“procedural memory”):
a. In this sense, “knowing” means being able to do something (like drive a
car or speak German).
b. In this sense, “learning” means acquiring a skill, i.e., coming to be able
to do something.
2. _______________________ (with people or places):
a. In this sense, “knowing” means being familiar with, knowing your way
around, someone or some place. (For example, “Do you know Joe?”,
“Do you know Chicago?”.)
b. In this sense, “learning” means coming to be
_______________________ with or know your way around someone or
some place.
3. mere (true) _______________________ (doxa, one kind of “declarative
memory”)
a. In this sense, “knowing” means coming up with the
_______________________ answer.
b. In this sense, “learning” means acquiring the right answer without
understanding why it’s right, for example: _______________________.
Neither Meno nor – especially – Socrates is interested in “knowing” or “learning” in any of
these 3 senses. Instead, they – especially Socrates – are interested only in the following
sense:
4. episteme, as opposed to mere belief.
a. In this sense, “knowing” means _______________________ +
understanding the _______________________ why the belief is true
(=_______________________ true belief).
b. In this sense, “learning” means coming to understand the
_______________________ why the belief is
_______________________.
From now on in this course, we’ll be using the word “knowledge” only in this 4th sense.
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B. Meno’s argument that learning is impossible:
(In what follows, we’ll number the premises as P1, P2, etc.; and the conclusions as C1, C2,
etc.)
Step one: Meno begins with two premises about learning (which Socrates will also
accept):
P1: If person S learns l at time t, then S must _______________________ at t that l is
true.
(This is because learning is more than just _______________________; learning
involves coming to see the _______________________ why what you learn is
true.)
P2: If S recognizes at t that l is true, then S _________________ ___________ l at t.
(For example, you can’t re-cognize someone whom you haven’t already
_________________.)
Step two: P1 and P2 together imply the following conclusion:
C1: If S learns l at t, then S _________________ ___________ l at t.
Step three: Meno adds a third premise about learning:
P3: If S learns l at time t, then S did not _______________________ l before t.
(That is, learning involves your coming to _______________________
something that you didn’t _______________________ before you learned it.)
Step four: C1 and P3 together imply the following conclusion:
C2: If S learns l at t, then S _________________ ___________ l at t and S
_______________________ already know l at t.
Step five: The statement “S already knew l at t, and S did not already know l at t” is an
example of what logicians call a “_______________________”, i.e., a statement of the
form “p and not-p”. Clearly, all contradictions must be _______________________,
since no statement can be both _________________ and __________________ at the
same time. Furthermore, since all contradictions are false, any statement that implies a
contradiction must also be _______________________. Thus C2 says that “S learns l at
t” implies a contradiction. And this allows us to conclude:
C3: “S learns l at t” is _______________________
,
which implies
C4: S _______________________ learn l at t.
And since the S, l, and t in this argument are completely arbitrary – that is, they don’t
involve any particular persons, subject-matter, or times, Meno finally concludes:
C5: ________ ___________ can ever learn anything, i.e., learning is
_______________________.
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III. Socrates’ argument that “learning” is recollection:
Step one: Socrates agrees with Meno that P1 and P2 are true. For this reason, Socrates also
agrees with Meno’s conclusion
C1: If S learns l at t, then P _________________ ___________ l at t.
Step two: Socrates first determines that
P3: ________ ____________ had taught Meno’s slave-boy geometry before.
Socrates then conducts his _______________________ -lesson with the boy, who learns how
to construct a square whose area is twice that of a given square. Now the various wrong
answers that the boy gives throughout the lesson were just _______________________ – and
thus mere _______________________, not knowledge. But when the boy finally comes to
understanding how to solve the geometry problem, he now really
_______________________ this, since he is able to give good _______________________
why his answer is true. Thus genuine _______________________ – and not just guessing or
_______________________ – occurs here.
Step three: The next question is: _______________________ did the slave-boy get his
knowledge _______________________? Here, we seem to have just 2 options:
P4: The source of the boy’s prior knowledge must have been either (A)
_______________________ or (B) _______________________.
But
P5: Socrates never gave the boy the answer, but only asked him
_______________________.
** (This kind of “teaching” is known as the Socratic _______________________.)
**
Thus we can rule out _______________________ as the source of the boy’s prior
knowledge. And since (A) and (B) together exhaust the possibilities, we can conclude:
C2: The source of the boy’s prior knowledge must have been
_______________________ himself.
In other words, the slave-boy can learn geometry precisely because he already
_______________________ it beforehand.
Step four: This last conclusion justifies Socrates in rejecting Meno’s P3. Socrates
maintains that if S learns l at t, then S _________________ ___________ l at t. In other
words, knowledge is _______________________.
Step five: Socrates’ final question is: _______________________ did the boy acquire this
knowledge? Again, we seem to have just 2 options:
P6: The boy must have acquired the knowledge either (A) after his _________________
but before the geometry-lesson, or (B) _______________________ his birth.
But recall P3 above, which states that ________ _____________ had taught the slave-boy
geometry before. Thus we can rule _____________. And since (A) and (B) together exhaust
the possibilities, we can conclude:
C3: The boy must have acquired his knowledge _______________________ his birth.
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Step six: From C3, Socrates draws a final conclusion:
C4: The boy’s soul _______________________ before his birth.
As a way of rounding out the picture of knowledge, Socrates spins out the myth of the
reincarnation of _______________________. Your soul already contains all the
_______________________ it will ever learn. It acquired this knowledge before birth, when
it was free of the _______________________, and spent its time simply contemplating the
ultimate objects of knowledge, which Plato calls “_______________________”. At birth,
however, you _______________________ all of this knowledge. Learning involves your
being asked the right questions, in such a way that your teachers jog your memory, getting
you to _______________________ what you’d forgotten. The right questions allow you to
give a _______________________ for your belief, thus allowing you to come to know – or
recognize – it again. But (in keeping with P2) it’s only because you’d already known (but
forgotten) it that you are able to _______________________ that it’s true when you “learn”
it.
IV. In-class group assignment on Plato’s “Apology” (counts as one worksheet for each
participant in the group):
Each group is to elect a “recorder” (to take written notes on and organize the group’s
response) and a “reporter” (to communicate this response to the rest of the class).
Each group is to work together to make the best argument it can for one verdict in one of the
three charges made against Socrates:
Charge: Socrates did not worship the Athenian gods (see “Apology,” 26c-28a; cf. also
20e-23b).
Group 1: guilty
Group 2: innocent
Charge: Socrates introduced new and different divine or spiritual powers to Athens (see
“Apology,” 26b-26e, including the mention of Anaxagoras’ theory of “Mind” – a new
god? – in footnote 7).
Group 3: guilty
Group 4: innocent
Charge: Socrates corrupted the youth of Athens (see “Apology,” 24c-26c).
Group 5: guilty
Group 6: innocent
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