DISCUSS PLATO’S ACCOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE MENO AND CONTRAST IT WITH THE PHAEDO.

DISCUSS PLATO’S ACCOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE MENO AND CONTRAST IT WITH THE PHAEDO.

DISCUSS PLATO’S ACCOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE MENO AND CONTRAST IT WITH THE PHAEDO.

Introduction

The Meno   and the Phaedo   were written by Plato through the voice of Socrates, his teacher and friend.   The Meno was written before the Phaedo, as the Meno talks of his life outside and searching for those with and ideas of knowledge and the Phaedo was written in light of his unfair conviction in the courtroom   and the last days Socrates had with Plato.   There are different accounts of epistemology   given in each dialogue and the ideas in the Meno regarding knowledge seem to come into conflict with those of the Phaedo.   The Meno involves Socrates talking to a young nobleman named Meno who has been raised in the company of rhetoricians; in this case namely one, Gorgias .   The Phaedo was written with a presupposition for having read to Meno, is the last book of the Last Days of Socrates as it leads up to the execution of Socrates himself.   The account of knowledge in the Meno contains the starting point for the ideas knowledge that is evident in the Phaedo.

Meno asks Socrates how a person can look for something when he has no idea what it is. How can he know when he has arrived at the truth when he does not already know what the truth is? (80d) Socrates avoids this sophistical paradox by pointing out that using this logic man could neither search for what he does know, because he would already know it, nor for what he does not know, because he would not know what he was looking for .
‘Plato subsequently discusses his own theory of knowledge through Socrates, that it is "recollection" from the past lives of the immortal soul’ .
In the Meno, Plato divides the dialogue in to attempting to define what virtue is and gives a demonstration to Meno questioning can virtue be taught or is it innate?   Plato searches for these answers by Socrates attempting to persuade Meno that one can only be born with virtue; it just has to be drawn out through some guidance, but...