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Meno
A young man who serves as Meno’s slave and who has spent his entire life with Meno’s family. While Socrates and Meno discuss the nature of virtue, this young man stands by and watches. At one point, Socrates calls him over and asks if he knows anything about geometry. When the slave says he doesn’t, Socrates proceeds by asking him a number of questions about a collection of squares he draws in the sand. Slowly but surely, Meno’s slave successfully answers these questions, thereby proving Socrates’s point that a person can “recollect” knowledge that his soul has already acquired. When the slave eventually becomes confused about a certain question, Socrates points out that he is in a better position than he was before the conversation began, since at least now the young man is aware of that which he does not know. Going on, Socrates then helps him answer this difficult question, though he never tells the slave anything. In this way, it becomes clear that teachers are important figures as long as they help coax out the intellectual abilities that a person already possesses.
Meno’s Slave Quotes in Meno
The Meno quotes below are all either spoken by Meno’s Slave or refer to Meno’s Slave. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Meno
Quotes
SOCRATES: You realize, Meno, what point he has reached in his recollection. At first he did not know what the basic line of the eight-foot square was; even now he does not yet know, but then he thought he knew, and answered confidently as if he did know, and he did not think himself at a loss, but now he does think himself at a loss, and as he does not know, neither does he think he knows.
MENO: That is true.
SOCRATES: So he is now in a better position with regard to the matter he does not know?
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SOCRATES: What do you think, Meno? Has he, in his answers, expressed any opinion that was not his own?
MENO: No, they were all his own.
SOCRATES: And yet, as we said a short time ago, he did not know? — That is true.
SOCRATES: So these opinions were in him, were they not? — Yes.
SOCRATES: So the man who does not know has within himself true opinions about the things that he does not know? — So it appears.
SOCRATES: These opinions have now just been stirred up like a dream, but if he were repeatedly asked about these same things in various ways, you know that in the end his knowledge about these things would be as accurate as anyone’s.
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Meno’s Slave Quotes in Meno
The Meno quotes below are all either spoken by Meno’s Slave or refer to Meno’s Slave. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Meno
Quotes
SOCRATES: You realize, Meno, what point he has reached in his recollection. At first he did not know what the basic line of the eight-foot square was; even now he does not yet know, but then he thought he knew, and answered confidently as if he did know, and he did not think himself at a loss, but now he does think himself at a loss, and as he does not know, neither does he think he knows.
MENO: That is true.
SOCRATES: So he is now in a better position with regard to the matter he does not know?
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Explanation and Analysis:
SOCRATES: What do you think, Meno? Has he, in his answers, expressed any opinion that was not his own?
MENO: No, they were all his own.
SOCRATES: And yet, as we said a short time ago, he did not know? — That is true.
SOCRATES: So these opinions were in him, were they not? — Yes.
SOCRATES: So the man who does not know has within himself true opinions about the things that he does not know? — So it appears.
SOCRATES: These opinions have now just been stirred up like a dream, but if he were repeatedly asked about these same things in various ways, you know that in the end his knowledge about these things would be as accurate as anyone’s.
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