Information on Socrates and Plato's Meno

The first well known logical person in Greece was Socrates. Socrates would ask questions like what is right, wisdom, beauty, or he would question people about piety. In Plato's Meno Socrates asks Meno, "Virtue then, as a whole or in part, is a matter of mindfulness?"source. However, Socrates' teachings and his questions eventually led to his demise. Plato's Meno was not about Plato himself. Rather, it was about Socrates and a man named Meno. The dialog between Socrates and Plato is on virtue. Socrates is continually asking Meno questions throughout the dialog. When Meno told Socrates, "I think so, Socrates, for justice is a virtue." source Socrates asked him, "Is it a virtue, Meno, or is it a virtue?-What do you mean?" sorce. What Socrates is using here is called the Socratic method, that is asking questions relating to the subject at hand. Interestingly enough, we don't have any writings from Socrates. The only reason we know about Socrates is that Plato and Xenophon wrote down Socrates' life, teachings and what he believed. However, even though Plato was one of Socrates' students he added his own ideas to Socrates' ideas (Source).


Throughout Plato's Meno Socrates asks questions as, "Virtue then, as a whole or in part, is a matter of mindfulness?"(Source) or, "Then, if that is how it is, the good are so by nature?"(Source) The method Socrates used is now called the Socratic method, that is when somebody constantly is questioning another about question at hand. This method will make the person listening to the questions think a little harder than they usually would about it if one did not use the Socratic method.(source)


In Athens people could speak with freedom. Socrates, however, took advantage of this (Stone 134). Socrates would ask the aristocratic youth of Athens questions about their belief of the truth of the popular opinions in Athens. The parents of these children, however, did not like the fact that Socrates was changing their childrens' views of life and other things in life. Socrates was soon accused of corrupting the younger people of Athens and disagreeing with the city's religion. Socrates was put to death by hemlock poisoning (Source).


The first well known logical person in Greece was Socrates. Socrates would ask questions like what is right, wisdom, beauty, or he would question the people about piety. In the end Socrates was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning. Socrates believed that the Greek gods could only do good for human beings and their fellow gods (Phillips 280).


Stone, I.F. The Trials of Socrates.
Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 1988.

Phillips, Christopher. Six Questions of Socrates. New York: W.W.
Norton and Company, 2004.