Jaymie Ticknor Intro Philosophy 1050 Sect 003 27 and 29 January 2014 Lecture 4 Aporia confusion Main Dramatis Personae Socrates aka our Hero Meno Plato s protagonist Meno young student of Gorgias famous Sophist teacher using language for power Slave Boy Anytus Theme issue Arete usually translated virtue but also sometimes excellence more specifically is virtue teachable Is virtue the MAIN theme Do we find out what virtue is in the end No because idea of virtue was attacked by the Socratic Method and ended as Aporia or confusion Other themes what is a definition in Socrates terms Epistemology nature of knowledge how to attain knowledge innate and senses ways of teaching and learning Plato vs Sophists Sophists first professional educators particularly of budding politicians some claimed to be able to teach arete most well known infamous for teaching rhetoric general tactic long speeches of what students just need to know not the whole truth and not to think for oneself their teaching method was the transferral of information very different to the Socratic Method of questioning Plato largely blames Sophists for the mess Athens is in Introduction There isn t one Meno is virtue teachable Socrates need to identify what Essence virtue is first before he figures out if it is teachable or innate Definition another way of saying this is that Socrates is looking for the ESSENCE of virtue common form indispensable quality of a thing or something Realist species do exist out there in world and we are simply identifying them Socrates Nominalist species do not exist naturally for example there is no category of giraffe Rather the mind creates this category Meno s Response After Final Definition Socrates power over others to be like the flat torpedo fish Socrates like a torpedo fish towards himself just as confused as others Meno s Paradox if you know something no need to argue if you do not know something there is nothing to inquire about something you know nothing about in the first place Theory of the Forms most famous Soul is immortal Plato s theory major influence in Christianity Theory all learning is recollection anamnesis asked questions to a slave boy Pythagoras Theorem to prove the theory Sophists defence of truth known as Moral Relativists did not believe that there is an objective good towards the definition of virtue as a whole Socrates and Plato against this Moral Objectivists
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