On the dating of the Meno

 

I read the whole of Plato's Meno again. I think I've told you about the piece from Diogenes' "Life of Socrates", which makes it abundantly clear that Plato wrote and published (circulated a few copies) the Meno prior to Socrates' trial and death:

"Socrates would take to task those who thought highly of themselves, proving them to be fools, as to be sure he treated Anytus, according to Plato's Meno. For Anytus could not endure to be ridiculed by Socrates, and so he helped to persuade Meletus to indict him on a charge of impiety and corrupting of youth." (Diog. Laert. II. 38). Anytus was a prominent Athenian politician, and in the Meno Socrates exposed to ridicule his political credentials. 

As we know from Plato's Euthyphro and Apology, Socrates' official accuser was Meletus, a nincompoop, who could never have won the case against Socrates if it were not for Anytus. After the court found Socrates guilty, as charged, Socrates commented on the verdict: 'Now, it seems, if only thirty votes had been cast the other way, I should have been acquitted. And so, I think, as far as Meletus is concerned, I have even now been acquitted, but anyone can see that, if Anytus had not come forward to accuse me, he would have been fined a thousand drachmas for not receiving a fifth part of the votes.' 

You might ask, why does Socrates bother with Meletus at this stage; what's the point? For an answer to this question we must go to Plato's Euthyphro. Plato wrote it before there was any indication that Anytus would decide to support Meletus' accusation at openly at the court. In the Euthyphro Socrates exposes to ridicule Meno's accusation. But when at the court Anytus backed the accusation with all his political power, the matter became serious, and Socrates believed that Athenians would soon repent and turn against Socrates' accusers. It was likely, that the main fault would be found with Meletus, the official accuser, and Socrates didn't want that. So in his interrogation of Meletus at the court he showed that Meletus had nothing to do with the actual accusation.

Socrates therefore quotes the accusation: 'Socrates is a wrongdoer because he corrupts the youth and does not believe in the gods the state believes in, but in other new spiritual beings.' (Ap. 24b8-c1)  (I'll drop Socrates' lengthy investigation concerning his alleged 'corruption of the youth', and come to the accusation concerning gods. Socrates says to Meletus: 'I am unable to understand whether you say that I teach that there are some gods, and myself then believe that there are some gods, and am not altogether godless [atheos in the original, that's how we've got our atheist], or you say that I do not myself believe in gods at all  and that I  teach this disbelief to other people. Meletus replies: 'That is what I say, that you do not believe in gods at all,' Socrates then exposes to light the accusation and Meletus' actual belief concerning him: 'Meletus appears to me to contradict himself, as if he were to say, "Socrates is a wrongdoer, because he does not believe in gods, but does believe in gods."

It's time for me to try and get some sleep.

 

PS

Until recently you could read in Google articles on Plato that Plato began to write his dialogues after Socrates died; for a German scholar Max Pohlenz "proved" this to be the case in his work Aus Platos Werdezeit, published in 1913 . In a number of articles on my blog I argued that Plato must have written the Meno prior to Socrates' death. For from Xenophon's Anabasis it is clear that Meno heinously betrayed the army of Greek mercenaries, who went to Asia minor in support of Cyrus. This happened more than a year prior to Socrates' trial and death, and must have been known in Greece soon after it happened, i.e. more than a year prior to Socrates' trial and death. In the Meno Plato ends with a very positive picture of Meno; I argued that Plato could not have depicted Meno as he did in the Meno; to no avail (there is a good Czech saying "Jako když házíš hrách na zeď" "as if you were throwing peas on a wall"). Then it occurred to me to look at Diogenes Laertius, to see if there is any mentioning of Anytus. To my great pleasure, I found the lines I quoted to you above (Diog. Laert. II. 38). So I informed about it some 17 or 18 classicists at Oxford. The result? Any mentioning concerning the time Plato began to write his dialogues disappeared from the Google articles on Plato. But nowhere any reference to Diog. Laert. II. 38, nowhere any reference to the fact that Plato began to write his dialogues during Socrates' lifetime, which would necessitate a complete rethink of Plato.