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Article: Socrates' practical reply to the learner's paradox in the Meno.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Michigan Academician
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Michigan Academy of Science Arts & Letters. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In Meno 80d4, an exasperated Meno, "bewitched," "beguiled," and "numbed" by Socrates' dialectical torpedoes, confronts Socrates with the famous "learner's paradox," in an attempt to derail Socrates' inquiry about what virtue (arete) is (and what objective truths are generally) by means of dialectical discussion. (1) Briefly, the paradox is that a man cannot search either for what he knows or for what he does not know, because if he knows he doesn't need to search, while if he doesn't know he won't recognize his quarry when he comes upon it. So, Meno suggests, there's no purpose in going on with the dialectical search. In reply, Socrates introduces the doctrine of ...