Please write one short 3-5 page paper on ONE (and only one) of the following
topics.
Cite all passages from Plato by Stephanic page numbers (examples
can be found in the suggested topics themselves).
(i) What is the significance of Meno’s paradox and how does the theory of
recollection (or reminding) respond to it (80d ff.)? Be sure to attend to the context
in which the theory is introduced. What are the theory of recollection’s
implications for Socrates’ method of philosophical inquiry by dialectical
examination, and for inquiry, teaching and learning quite generally? (Go into as
much or as little of the geometrical discussion with the slave boy as you need, but
the mathematical details should not be the focus of your essay.)
(ii) From 71e-79d in the Meno, the character Meno attempts to define virtue and
Socrates uncover problems with the proposed definitions. A recurring problem
with Meno’s attempts, according to Socrates, is that they break virtue into pieces.
How do these attempts fail as definitions? You may be selective: focus in the
central thrust of Socrates’ objections, not necessarily on every detail of Meno’s
proposed definitions. Discussing the issues raised by the attempts to define shape
and colour (75c-76c).
(iii) Socrates seems to champion a method of inquiry which requires that questions
about the essence or nature of a thing (What F is) be answered first; then and only
then does it become appropriate to pursue questions about its attributes. Yet at
86c ff., in response to a request from Meno, Socrates agrees to pursue a question
about the how virtue is acquired by means of what we call the method of
hypothesis. Explain how the method works using the details from the inquiry
Socrates and Meno are pursuing to illustrate it. Does Socrates use of the method of
hypothesis imply that he has abandoned or modified his original principle (namely
the principle apparently requiring that questions of about a thing’s essence or
nature be answered first)?
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