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A REFLECTION ON PLATO’S SOCRATIC DIALOGUE WITH MENO

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A REFLECTION ON PLATO’S SOCRATIC DIALOGUE WITH MENO

Plato was a great philosopher from Greece. He came up with a school called The Academy and

as a philosopher he majored in mathematics. Plato was an established figure in the Western and

he was inspired by the readings of Homer for instance the Iliad and Odyssey. In addition to he

was also influenced by the political surrounding in Greece by then. In this case am giving my

reflection on his Socratic dialogue called Meno. Plato expressed philosophical content in most of

his writings and therefore in this particular scenario am going to point out my understanding on

this dialogue and apply it in different situations according to the way mi have understood it. This

is as discussed below.

Firstly, Plato’s siblings had an argument which aimed at suggesting whether justice is

better than injustice. Therefore, Plato came out to give a conclusion on this and to justify this he

came up with the myth of Gyges. In a nutshell the Gyges gave one authority to be invisible at

will. The Gyges also proves that we as human beings we are just because we fear punishment

and rebuke. The lesson I learnt from Plato’s myth of Gyges is that in any conflict arising if one

wrongs the other and it is seen clearly, justice will lie in the hands of the wrong doer. This is

because when human beings do wrong, they will tend to defend themselves in the best way

possible to have themselves freed. The example of our courts today justifies how just we are as

human beings even after doing any wrong. The reason is that in courts nowadays we have

lawyers who are the mediator between the accused and the law or the accuser and the law. The

lawyers will tend to defend one even if he or she has been found guilty of any criminal activity

committed only to justify before the court that they are just. Therefore, this is a lesson I learn

from Plato’s myth of Gyges and I feel it is true that we are just because we fear punishment.

Another lesson I learn from the argument of Plato’s brothers of whether justice is better than
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injustice is that to be right or wrong all lies within your ability to defend yourself in whatever the

situation. On the other hand, in Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno, the very first thing I learnt

from this dialogue knowledge is indispensable in any undertaking. To get knowledge one has to

read extensively. I also learnt knowledge is the weapon against ignorance. This because in the

dialogue both Meno and Socrates gave reasons which were meant to cover all loopholes so that

no one would win against the other by their own ignorance. The therefore, it teaches us that it we

should never give an easy escape through for one to win over us in any situation especially the

ones involving dialogues. The other lesson I derive from this dialogue is that in whatever

position we are we should never show off just as Socrates in Plato’s Socratic dialogue who is

presented as being humble and wise. Socrates in this case is to some extend more knowledgeable

than Meno

but he accommodates him with all his arguments and reasons he gives. In addition to I learnt that

as teachers in any formal environment we are entitled to work for the well being of learners who

derive knowledge from it.Therefore, as Socrates did in the dialogue by continuously inquiring

Meno’s understanding so should teachers do to learners in order to get their attention and make

sure that they are following and understanding what they are giving out. The other lesson I get is

being mindful of others especially when we see nerd in helping them. This is seen in the dialogue

where Socrates cared for Meno whereby he wanted Meno to understand his teachings instead of

letting him he was right in his own way. Meno in this dialogue thinks he knows better than

Socrates because he was rigid with what he knew and made it final hence hindering him from

acquiring more from Socrates. In this scenario I get the lesson that in however much we know

about something that is not final of learning new information from others and we should allow

our minds to be flexible to acquire anything new from our colleagues. In addition to we learnt
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that learning and teaching never stops for each time and day has a new beginning with different

events from the previous ones. I also realize that a teacher is the provider of knowledge to the

learner and he or she is always right. Competence, experience and skills are key things for the

success of anything with that is professionally. This is because you cannot do anything without

having prior knowledge and information about it as seen from what we learnt that you cannot

look for what you don’t know for it is tantamount to doing things out of know-how just as an

amateur. In Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno there is the issue of virtue and Socrates in the

dialogue defines it as what makes us good. I take this to reflect on our day to day activities. This

is because virtue sets the standard of our behavior and the way we carry ourselves especially

before others. However, as students we should be ready to acquire knew information and behave

in the respectful and obedient manner. In Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno I also learnt that

in everything we do we should apply wisdom and think with logic for us to make a good ending

but if we reason in ignorance everything is going to be a mess. On the rother hand I learnt that

everything we do has both demerits and merits and therefore we should be mindful and careful in

dealing with different situations.

It is evident in the dialogue as Plato puts it that if we overdo our natural ability

which is limited to the choices, we make we will not get positive results as expected. In what we

learnt I found that knowledge is praised more than opinion and therefore in anything we do we

should seek to know before giving our point of view about it. The other lesson I derive is that

virtue is achieved through what we comprehend and inspiration from the world around us that is

if the environment is negative then we have bad virtues but if it is conducive for good morals

then we acquire good virtues. From Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno there is a lesson that

knowledge is firm and stable while opinions are brief in content and reason since one is not sure
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whether their point of view is true. We should always be well equipped with knowledge in what

we have to present before others for us to win over a conversation and be able to convince others

to think the way we do because knowledge and reason does for it is factual but opinions may

raise mixed reactions for we are not sure of what we are saying. To add on we should also be

flexible and not rigid for us to acquire new knowledge for by so doing we will be wiser than

staying adamant with what we have and remain with it which contributes to our ignorance.

In summary Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno carries the theme of knowledge,

ignorance and virtue. Therefore, we should have prior knowledge in anything we want to say or

do. Virtue guides our moral standards and how we ought to carry ourselves before others. We

should always avoid following things from our pint of view for it is not reliable but instead from

our knowledge because knowledge is factual and firm in reason. We as learners we should never

be rigid with what we know but make our brains flexible to acquire new information from our

mentors. Teachers should emulate the example of Socrates being mindful of their student’s

understanding and attention as it is evident in Plato’s Socratic dialogue with Meno.

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Reference

Blackler, J. (2019). Rising Above the Risible: Laughter in Plato (Doctoral dissertation,

University of Otago).

Marcus, S. (2020). Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949; trans. 1953). Public

Culture, 32(2 (91)), 375-383.