84c-86c The slave boy’s geometry lesson, part II: up from the depths of perplexity. The lesson from the lesson: ‘the man who does not know has within him true opinions about what he does not know.’ The importance of inquiring into Being in earnest.

84c

S: Look, then, at how he will emerge from his perplexity while searching together with me. I will do nothing but ask questions, not instruct. Watch whether you find me instructing and explaining instead of asking for his opinion. You tell me, is this not a four-foot area figure? You understand what I mean?

B: I do.

S: We add to it this figure, which is equal in area?

B: Yes.

S: And we add this third figure, equal to each of the other two?

B: Yes.

S: Could we then fill in that space in the corner?

B: Certainly.

S: So we now have four equal figures?

B: Yes.

S: Well then, how many times is the whole figure larger than this first one?

B: Four times.

S: But we were supposed to have one only twice as large, or don’t you remember?

B: I certainly do.

85

S: Doesn’t a line drawn from corner to corner cut each of these figures in two?

B: Yes.

S: So now we have four equal lines enclosing a new figure?

B: They do.

S: Consider now: how large is this new figure?

B: I do not understand.

S: Each of these lines cuts off half of each of these four figures making it up, do they not?

B: Yes.

S: How many of this size are there in this figure?

B: Four.

S: How many in this?

B: Two.

S: What is the relation of four to two?

B: Double.

S: How many square feet in this?

B: Eight.

S: Based on what line?

B: This one.

S: That is, based on the line that stretches from corner to corner of the four-foot figure?

B: Yes.

S: Wise men call this the diagonal, so if ‘diagonal’ is its name, do you say the double figure would be the one based on the diagonal?

B: Most certainly, Socrates.

S: What do you think, Meno? In giving his answers, has he expressed any opinion that was not his own?

M: No, they were all his own.

S: And yet, as we said a short time ago, he did not know?

M: That is true.

S: So these opinions were in him all along, were they not?

M: Yes.

S: So the man who does not know has within himself true opinions about the things he does not know?

M: So it appears.

S: These opinions have so far just been stirred up, as in a dream, but if he were repeatedly asked these sorts of questions in various ways, you know that in the end his knowledge about these things would be as perfect as anyone's.

M: It is likely.

S: And he will know it all without having been taught, only questioned, by finding knowledge within himself?

M: Yes.

S: And isn’t finding knowledge within oneself recollection?

M: Certainly.

S: Must he not either have at some time acquired the knowledge he now possesses, or else have always possessed it?

M: Yes.

S: If he always had it, he would always have known. If he acquired it, he cannot have done so in his present life. Unless someone has been teaching him some geometry? Because he will do as well with all of geometry, and all other knowledge. Has someone taught him everything? You should know, especially as he has been born and brought up in your house.

M: But I know that no one has taught him.

S: Yet he has these opinions, or doesn't he?

M: It seems undeniable, Socrates.

86

S: If he has not acquired them in his present life, isn’t it clear that he had them and learned them at some other time?

M: It seems so.

S: Then that must have been the time before he was a human being?

M: Yes.

S: If, then, there must exist in him – both while he is and while he is not a human being – true opinions which can be stirred up into knowledge by questioning, won’t it have to be the case that his soul had in it all this knowledge, all along? For it’s clear that throughout all time he either was or was not a human being.

M: So it would seem.

S: And if the truth about reality is always in our soul, the soul must be immortal. And therefore you should take heart and seek out and recollect what you do not presently know - that is, what you cannot presently remember?

M: I think that what you say is right, Socrates, but I don’t know how.

S: I think so too, Meno. I would not swear that my argument is right down to the last word, but I would fight to the last breath, both in word and deed, that we will be better men – brave instead of lazy – if we will believe we must search for the things we do not know; if we will refuse to believe it is not possible to find out what we do not know and that there is no point in looking.

M: Here again, I think you are right, Socrates.

back to Meno mainpage

back to Plato mainpage