Author: Plato Plato

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-10-01

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 9781333807832

Excerpt from The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. 3 of 4: Translated Into English With Analyses and Introductions; The Trial and Death of Socrates Now that Meno has been made to understand the nature of a general definition, he answers in the spirit of a Greek gentle man, and in the words of a poet, that virtue is to delight in things honorable, and to have the power of getting them. This is a nearer approximation than he has yet made to a complete definition, and, regarded as a piece of proverbial or popular morality is not far from the truth. But the objection is urged that the honorable is the good, and as every' one desires the good, the point of the definition is contained in the last words, the power of getting them. And they must be got justly or with justice. The definition will then stand thus: Virtue is the power of getting good with justice. But justice is a part of virtue, and therefore virtue is the getting of good with a part of virtue. The definition repeats the word defined. Meno complains that the conversation of Socrates has the effect of a torpedo's shock upon him. When he talks with other persons he has plenty to say about virtue; in the presence of Socrates, his thoughts seem to desert him. Socrates replies that he is only the cause of perplexity in others, because he is himself perplexed. He proposes to continue the inquiry. But how, asks Meno, can he inquire either into what he knows or into what he does not know? This is a sophistical puzzle, which, as Soc rates remarks, saves a great deal of trouble to him who accepts it. But the puzzle has a real difficulty latent under it, to which Socrates replies in a figure. The difficulty is the origin of knowl edge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.