Plato's Meno "Can Virtue be Taught?"
             In Webster's New World College Dictionary virtue is defined as, "general moral excellence; right action and thinking; goodness or morality" . It appears, by Websters' standards, that virtue can easily be defined. However, the true question in Plato's "Meno" is simply whether or not virtue can be taught. In Plato's "Meno", Meno asks Socrates, the great philosopher, whether or not virtue can be taught, or if men possess it by nature or some other way . Socrates says he cannot teach virtue because he doesn't know what virtue is . Socrates is a philosophical genius that can not only outwit his opponent, but he also has the astonishing ability of twisting a question around and re-posing it to the one who asked him the question in the first place. This is evident in "Meno", when he denies having the knowledge of what virtue is and asks Meno himself to define it. Meno goes on to list what he feels are virtuous qualities, and is quite content with the fact that he was able to define virtue and Socrates, the great philosopher, wasn't.
             This is a total set up on Socrates' part and Meno is unfortunately the victim of Socrates' true form of genius. Socrates responds to Meno by saying, "I seem to be in great luck, Meno; while I am looking for one virtue, I have found you to have a whole swarm of them" . This is where Meno's frustration begins to set in. Meno continues with his attempts of trying to convince Socrates about the true definition of virtue. Socrates rejects every example Meno delivers his way and Meno, in the end, walks away from the question. Socrates basis his defense on two notions, the first notion is that before one can teach virtue they must clearly define what virtue means. And two, since Meno failed to offer a clear definition as to what virtue means, then Socrates couldn't r...