1. Lecture 2: Plato’s Meno -- Mimesis, Dialectic and Intellectual Inquiry
SEL2211: Contexts
Lecture 2: Plato’s Meno -- Mimesis, Dialectic and Intellectual Inquiry
Papyrus fragment of Plato’s Republic [

2. An introduction/overview of the content of the module
Last time:
An introduction/overview of the content of the module
Today: Plato’s Meno
An introduction/overview of a key part of the teaching philosophy.
The mimetic approach to intellectual inquiry
Why Chomsky calls the problem of language acquisition “Plato’s Problem”

3. Plato: Some Brief Background
Born in or near Athens, Greece in a wealthy, well-connected family
Student of another famous philosopher: Socrates
Wrote 36 dialogues and 11 letters (all but one dialogue lost to Western civilization during Early Medieval Period)
(427 BC BC)

4. Why is Plato of interest?
Probably the greatest intellectual figure in Western Civilization
"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato…."
Alfred North Whitehead
( )

5. A (small) sample of questions discussed in the Platonic dialogues:
What does it mean to know something is true (as opposed to just believing it to be true)? (Theateatus)
Is literary theory actually about anything? (Ion, Protagoras)
Is breaking the law ever justified? (Crito)
What does ‘not’ mean? (Sophist)
What happens after you die? (Phaedo)
How do you write a good essay? (Phaedrus)
What is love? (Symposium)

6. Why Plato in this module?
In a word, mimesis:
mi·me·sis  n. 1. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art
Plato’s approach to philosophical/intellectual inquiry is mimetic
That’s our approach here in the module

7. Features of Plato’s dialogues
Main character is usually Plato’s teacher, Socrates
The “Socratic Method”
Dialectical, question and answer method
Crucial to do in person. Socrates distrusts the written word.
It’s about trying to find out the truth
Hypotheses are tested, and discarded if they’re shown to lead to a contradiction.
In early dialogues, often leads to aporia (puzzlement, an impasse)
Socratic ‘irony’
Eirōneía – to claim to know less than you do

8. Why the Meno specifically?
Two reasons
First part: a mimetic treatise on education and learning
Second part: the reference for Chomsky’s “Plato’s Problem”
How to read Plato
A note on translations (esp Jowett)

9. The Meno Main Dramatis Personae
Socrates (aka Our Hero)
Meno, a young student of Gorgias (a famous Sophist teacher)
Main theme/issue: Arete (usually translated ‘virtue’, but also sometimes ‘excellence’)
More specifically, is virtue teachable?
The problem of Meno in the Meno
Meno is lazy, dim and badly-educated
The dialectic process breaks down

10. The Meno Introduction:
There isn’t one. Meno: Is virtue teachable?
Socrates: Hang on. We need to identify what ‘virtue’ is first
Meno parrots Gorgias’ position
The virtue of men, women, horses, etc. etc.
Socrates: what do these have in common?
Meno seemingly doesn’t get it. They go ‘round and ‘round a bit.

11. The Meno Dialectic inquiry breaks down – Meno gets petulant
“You’re like one of those electric rays”
Meno’s paradox
“It’s pointless enquiring into anything, because you don’t know what to look for and you wouldn’t recognize it if you found it anyway”
Socrates: Oh, that old chestnut. Meno: What’s wrong with it?

12. The Meno And then things get weird….
Socrates: Many wise priests and priestesses (?!?) and also poets (??!!?!?!) have talked about learning as a process of recollection (from a past life)
Meno: Prove it.
This is where Chomsky’s “Plato’s Problem” begins

13. The slave boy’s geometry problem4 2 8 4 2 2 8 2
Area = 4
Area = 8?
Conclusion: the slave boy ‘knows’ truths about geometry, like the Pythagorean theorem. How did this happen?

14. Chomsky’s point re language:
Our knowledge of our language looks like a similar problem. Knowledge manufactured from nothing.
likely vs. probable
The meni expected to see themi vs.
*I wonder who the meni expected to see themi
Traces of A’-movement are R-expressions
So, where did this knowledge come from?
Plato’s answer to his problem: anamnesis (the doctrine of recollection)
Chomsky’s answer to his problem: genetics
However, recollection (possibly) problematic even in Plato’s own context.
Dubious sources, tied in to conclusion to dialogue which is generally agreed not to be meant seriously.

15. What is recollection really?
Interesting from p.o.v. of Generative grammar
Wilkes (1979): recollection can be ‘rehabilitated’. It’s just the dialectical process.
Slave boy goes from confident ignorance, to aporia, to some sense of what the answer is
Franklin 2001 “The Structure of Dialectic in the Meno”:
“In dialectic, reflection on the things we say informs us about the properties whose names we are using. In return, as our grasp of a property improves, the way we speak about it and its bearers develops into a coherent, explanatory theory.”
In other words, dialectical inquiry is about consulting intuitions

16. But what are you getting at with this dialectical (self-)examination?
Unconscious knowledge, pretty much in Chomsky’s sense
Unconscious knowledge: the solution to Meno’s Paradox
Knowledge of language – knowledge of ethics?
The (blackly) ironic conclusion to the Meno.

17. Reading Meno translations:
(by Benjamin Jowett)
Written for the general educated reader….of Traditional, but overformal-sounding to modern ears.
 (by W.R.M. Lamb) A more modern, but still traditional translation. Kind of a pain to use, though.
 (by J. Holbo & B. Waring)
A recent translation I know nothing about (looks to have been done specifically for this person’s module), but seems pretty good and readable
Some other good translations available in cheap paperbacks are by Robin Waterfield and W.K.C. Guthrie
There is an ungodly amount of material both printed and on the internet about Plato and the Meno. These are just places to start. Search, and follow up references on specific questions of interest.
General Plato links
Wikipedia. Plato.
Wikipedia. Meno.
Wikipedia. Platonic Epistemology.
Stanford Internet Encyclopedia. Plato.
History of Philosophy Podcast. Plato’s Meno.
The two articles cited in lecture are:
Wilkes, K. V “Conclusions in the Meno” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 61 (2),
Franklin, L “The Structure of Dialectic in the Meno” Phronesis 46 (4),
Two interesting books that give a good overview are:
Day, Jane M Plato's Meno in Focus. London, New York: Routledge.
[note: this book contains Wilkes (1979) as well as other key articles about the Meno]
Scott, Dominic Plato’s Meno. Oxford: Oxford University Press.