In the following pages I will present Socrates' argument that "No one wants what is bad," (11) and my own view on this statement. What does the statement," No one wants what is bad" (11) mean; you might ask. In the Meno Socrates explains that people make choices, some of which might be harmful to them, without truly understanding the final results of their choice. Is this a possibility, or could Socrates be mistaken? Can people willingly make a choice for the bad when they know it will cause them harm or make them miserable? Socrates says no, and I have to disagree with him. I believe sometimes that choice is the only one available and certain people will choose it. Let's find out.
             Socrates states that "No one wants what is bad," (11) and his argument is as follows. Bad things harm those who possess them. There are two groups of people, those who desire the good and those who desire the bad. Those who desire good things have made a decision which will cause them no harm or make them miserable. Those who desire the bad must believe it to be the good (10), and can be broken into two further groups with this distinction. One group that believes the bad is in reality good, such as a King who gathers as much wealth as possible, with no concern for his subjects.
             In this case the King is just making a bad choice, and so is choosing the bad by mistake. If he was aware of this he would not have made that choice. Because no one wants what makes us miserable (11). This causes him harm in that his subjects will hate him, even though he has no inkling of this. The other group is the one who believes the bad things are bad. As you can see, the first group must be mistaken, because if they truly knew that what they believed to be good were truly bad, they would not have chosen the bad in the first place. The second group had to have made a mistake, because no one could possibly want what will hurt the...