SEL2211: CONTEXTS

Lecture 2: Plato’s Meno -- Mimesis, Dialectic and

Intellectual Inquiry

Papyrus fragment of Plato’s Republic

[http://www.ancient.eu.com/image/190/]

Last time: An introduction/overview of the content

of the module

Today: Plato’s Meno An introduction/overview of a key part of

the teaching philosophy. The mimetic approach to intellectual inquiry

Why Chomsky calls the problem of language acquisition “Plato’s Problem”

Plato: Some Brief Background

(427 BC - 347 BC)

• Born in or near Athens, Greece in a wealthy, well-connected family

• Student of another famous philosopher: Socrates

• Wrote 36 dialogues and 11 letters (all but one dialogue lost to Western civilization during Early Medieval Period)

Why is Plato of interest?

Probably the greatest intellectual figure in Western Civilization

"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato…."

Alfred North Whitehead

(1861-1947)

A (small) sample of questions discussed in the Platonic dialogues:

• What does it mean to know something is true (as opposed to just believing it to be true)? (Theateatus)

• Is literary theory actually about anything? (Ion, Protagoras)

• Is breaking the law ever justified? (Crito)• What does ‘not’ mean? (Sophist)• What happens after you die? (Phaedo)• How do you write a good essay? (Phaedrus)• What is love? (Symposium)

Why Plato in this module?

In a word, mimesis:

mi·me·sis  n. 1. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art

Plato’s approach to philosophical/intellectual inquiry is mimetic

That’s our approach here in the module

Features of Plato’s dialogues

Main character is usually Plato’s teacher, Socrates

The “Socratic Method”

Dialectical, question and answer method Crucial to do in person. Socrates distrusts the written word.

It’s about trying to find out the truth Hypotheses are tested, and discarded if they’re shown to

lead to a contradiction.

In early dialogues, often leads to aporia (puzzlement, an impasse)

Socratic ‘irony’ Eirōneía – to claim to know less than you do

Why the Meno specifically?

Two reasons• First part: a mimetic treatise on education and

learning• Second part: the reference for Chomsky’s

“Plato’s Problem”

How to read Plato

A note on translations (esp Jowett)

The Meno

Main Dramatis Personae• Socrates (aka Our Hero)• Meno, a young student of Gorgias (a famous

Sophist teacher)

Main theme/issue: Arete (usually translated ‘virtue’, but also sometimes ‘excellence’)• More specifically, is virtue teachable?

The problem of Meno in the Meno• Meno is lazy, dim and badly-educated• The dialectic process breaks down

The Meno

Introduction:• There isn’t one. Meno: Is virtue teachable?

Socrates: Hang on. We need to identify what ‘virtue’ is first

Meno parrots Gorgias’ position• The virtue of men, women, horses, etc. etc.

Socrates: what do these have in common?• Meno seemingly doesn’t get it. They go ‘round

and ‘round a bit.

The Meno

Dialectic inquiry breaks down – Meno gets petulant• “You’re like one of those electric rays”• Meno’s paradox• “It’s pointless enquiring into anything, because

you don’t know what to look for and you wouldn’t recognize it if you found it anyway”

Socrates: Oh, that old chestnut. Meno: What’s wrong with it?

The Meno

And then things get weird….

Socrates: Many wise priests and priestesses (?!?) and also poets (??!!?!?!) have talked about learning as a process of recollection (from a past life)

Meno: Prove it.• This is where Chomsky’s “Plato’s Problem”

begins

2

2

Area = 4 Area = 8?

4

4

22

√8

√8

The slave boy’s geometry problem

Conclusion: the slave boy ‘knows’ truths about geometry, like the Pythagorean theorem. How did this happen?

Chomsky’s point re language:• Our knowledge of our language looks like a similar problem.

Knowledge manufactured from nothing.

likely vs. probable

The meni expected to see themi vs.

*I wonder who the meni expected to see themi

Traces of A’-movement are R-expressions

So, where did this knowledge come from?• Plato’s answer to his problem: anamnesis (the doctrine of

recollection)• Chomsky’s answer to his problem: genetics

However, recollection (possibly) problematic even in Plato’s own context.• Dubious sources, tied in to conclusion to dialogue which is

generally agreed not to be meant seriously.

What is recollection really? • Interesting from p.o.v. of Generative grammar

• Wilkes (1979): recollection can be ‘rehabilitated’. It’s just the dialectical process. Slave boy goes from confident ignorance, to aporia, to

some sense of what the answer is

• Franklin 2001 “The Structure of Dialectic in the Meno”:

“In dialectic, reflection on the things we say informs us about the properties whose names we are using. In return, as our grasp of a property improves, the way we speak about it and its bearers develops into a coherent, explanatory theory.”

• In other words, dialectical inquiry is about consulting intuitions

But what are you getting at with this dialectical (self-)examination?• Unconscious knowledge, pretty much in

Chomsky’s sense

Unconscious knowledge: the solution to Meno’s Paradox

Knowledge of language – knowledge of ethics?

The (blackly) ironic conclusion to the Meno.

Reading Meno translations: (by Benjamin Jowett) http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/meno.html Written for the general educated reader….of 1870. Traditional, but overformal-sounding to

modern ears.  (by W.R.M. Lamb) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+meno+70a. A more

modern, but still traditional translation. Kind of a pain to use, though.  (by J. Holbo & B. Waring) http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/rgrizzard/M316L_SP12/meno.pdf A recent translation I know nothing about (looks to have been done specifically for this person’s

module), but seems pretty good and readable Some other good translations available in cheap paperbacks are by Robin Waterfield and W.K.C.

Guthrie There is an ungodly amount of material both printed and on the internet about Plato

and the Meno. These are just places to start. Search, and follow up references on specific questions of interest.

General Plato links Wikipedia. Plato. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Wikipedia. Meno. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meno Wikipedia. Platonic Epistemology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_epistemology Stanford Internet Encyclopedia. Plato. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/ History of Philosophy Podcast. Plato’s Meno. http://historyofphilosophy.net/plato-menoThe two articles cited in lecture are: Wilkes, K. V. 1979. “Conclusions in the Meno” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 61 (2), 143-

153. Franklin, L. 2001. “The Structure of Dialectic in the Meno” Phronesis 46 (4), 413-439.Two interesting books that give a good overview are: Day, Jane M. 1994. Plato's Meno in Focus. London, New York: Routledge. [note: this book contains Wilkes (1979) as well as other key articles about the Meno] Scott, Dominic Plato’s Meno. Oxford: Oxford University Press.