Plato: Meno – Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy - 2

In Plato: Meno – Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – 1, my last entry, I discussed the dating of the Meno, involving Rawson’s “Plato: Meno” and Adams’ “Platonic Chronology and Writings”. An attentive reader surely noticed a discrepancy between the two, which I did not touch, let alone explained. Rawson dates the Meno tentatively at 385 B.C.E., while Adams dates it three years earlier, at 388; this is the year with which he opens the Second Period of Plato’s literary activity, with the Meno figuring as the first dialogue in that period. It might seem trivial, when we are dealing with a period almost two and a half thousand years distant from our time. But it ceases to be so, if we consider Adams’ reasons for opening the Second Period at 388 B.C.E.: ‘390-388 First Journey to Sicily and Italy (early 390 to summer 388). Probably Plato's first real attention to Pythagoreanism, which was undergoing a renaissance in South Italy under the leadership of Archytas of Tarentum. First acquaintance with Dion of Syracuse (brother-in-law of Dionysius I) and with the young Dionysius II (who became tyrant in 367 on the death of his father). Plato departed to Aegina, on orders of Dionysius I.’ Those were not the years in which Plato would have written the Meno.

As the passage at Diog. Laert. II.38 suggests, the Meno was written at the time when it was taking place dramatically. Aspiring to become a leading politician, the only true politician, for he was the only one capable of teaching true political art to another, Plato in the dialogue displayed his democratic credentials in Socrates’ questioning of Meno’s slave-boy.

Let me quote, abbreviated, the discussion between Socrates and Meno after the boy successfully solves, guided by Socrates’ questioning, the mathematical problem the solution to which Socrates wants him to “recollect”.

Socrates: ‘Was there any opinion that he did not give as an answer of his own thought?’

Meno: ‘No, they were all his own.’

Socrates: ‘And at this moment those opinions have just been stirred up in him, like a dream; but if he were repeatedly asked these same questions in a variety of forms, you know he will have in the end as exact an understanding of them as anyone … You see, he can do the same with all geometry and every branch of knowledge. Now, can anyone have taught him all this? You ought surely to know, especially as he was born and bred in your house.’

Meno: ‘Well, I know that no one has ever taught him.’ (85b7-e6, transl. W.R.M. Lamb)

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Let me now turn to Plato’s and Xenophon’s characteristic of Meno, as Rawson has it: ‘The contemporary historian Xenophon … wrote an account whose description of Meno resonates with Plato’s portrait here: ambitious yet lazy for the hard work of doing things properly, and motivated by desire for wealth and power while easily forgetting friendship and justice. But Xenophon paints Meno as a thoroughly selfish and unscrupulous schemer, while Plato sketches him as a potentially dangerous, overly confident young man who has begun to tread the path of arrogance. His natural talents and his privileged but unphilosophical education are not guided by wisdom or even patience, and he prefers “good things” like money over genuine understanding and moral virtue.’

Let me compare this with what Socrates says about Meno to Anytus, perhaps the most important Athenian politician of those days; Anytus is Meno’s host in the days of his stay in Athens.

Socrates and Meno are sitting on a bench, discussing virtue. Meno asks Socrates: ‘Do you think there are no teachers of virtue?’ Socrates replies: ‘I have often inquired whether there were any, but for all my pains I cannot find one. But look, Meno: at the very moment when he was wanted, we have Anytus sitting down beside us, to take his share in our quest. And we may well ask his assistance; for our friend Anytus is the son of a wise and wealthy father, Anthemion, who gave his son a good upbringing and education, as the Athenian people think, for they choose him for the highest offices.’ (89e4-90b3)

Socrates turns to Anytus: ‘Now there is an opportunity of your joining me in a consultation on your friend Meno here (Lamb translates wrongly ‘on my friend Meno here’ (peri tou xenou toutoui Menónos. Meno is not Socrates’ xenos (“guest-friend”, he is a xenos of Anytus). He has been declaring to me ever so long, Anytus, that he desires to have that wisdom and virtue whereby men keep their house or their city in good order, and honour their parents, and know when to welcome and when to speed citizens and strangers as befits a good man. Now tell me to whom ought we properly to send him for lessons in this virtue?’ (90e10 – 91b2, tr. Lamb)

Socrates’ miniportrait of Meno might be dismissed as just his way of getting Anytus into their discussion; he uses language that Anytus can understand. The problem is that this picture resonates with the picture of Meno towards the end of the dialogue.

It must be said that in the ensuing discussion Socrates is not very nice to Anytus, who appears to be a useless debater on political virtue. Anytus ends his involvement in discussion with the words: ‘Socrates, I consider you are too apt to speak ill of people. I for one, if you will take my advice, would warn you to be careful: in most cities it is probably easier to do people harm than good, and particularly in this one; I think you know that yourself.’ (94e3-95a1)

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Lamb notes: ‘Anytus goes away.’ I disagree; Meno’s and Socrates’ use of the pronoun hode clearly indicates that Anytus is sitting with the two to the end of the dialogue. At 99 e 2 Meno says to Socrates ‘though perhaps “our friend Anytus” (Anytos hode’ ‘this here Anytus’) may be annoyed at your statement (kaitoi isós Anytos hode soi achthetai legonti)’ As can be seen, Lamb leaves the pronoun hode untranslated, patching it up with the words “our friend Anytus”. And even more importantly, Socrates uses the pronoun hode in the accusative tonde in his last words to Meno, with which the dialogue ends: ‘It is time now for me to go my way, but do you persuade our friend Anytus (ton xenon tonde Anyton) of that whereof you are now yourself persuaded, so as to put him in a gentler mood; for if you can persuade him, you will do a good turn to the people of Athens also.’ (100b7-c2)

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The question is, what does Socrates mean with his closing exhortation to Meno: ‘do you persuade our friend Anytus of that whereof you are now yourself persuaded.’ What is it whereof Meno has been persuaded?

The perfect tense pepeisai, which Socrates uses in his losing words with reference to what Meno has been persuaded of, embraces the whole dialogue. Plato opens the dialogue with Meno asking Socrates: ‘Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue can be taught (Echeis moi  eipein, ó Sókrates, ára didakton hé areté?)? This question underlies the whole dialogue and is prominently aired and answered in the closing stage of the dialogue.

Socrates: ‘If through all this discussion our queries and statements have been correct, virtue is found to be neither natural nor taught, but is imparted to us by a divine dispensation without understanding in those who receive it, unless there should be someone among the statesmen capable of making a statesman of another. And if there should be any such, he might fairly be said to be among the living what Homer says Teiresias was among the dead – “He alone has comprehension; the rest are flitting shades.” In the same way he on earth, in respect of virtue, will be a real substance among shadows.’ (99e4-100a7)

Who can this ‘someone among the statesmen’ be, but Plato himself?

Meno: ‘I think you put it excellently, Socrates.’