What do you think?
Rate this book
Meno Plato: Annotated
About the author
Plato ( Plátōn, "wide, broad-shouldered") (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks –Socrates, Plato, originally named Aristocles, and Aristotle– who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates and to have been deeply influenced by his teacher's unjust death.
Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Plato is thought to have lectured at the Academy, although the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. They have historically been used to teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.
Plato ( Plátōn, "wide, broad-shouldered") (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks –Socrates, Plato, originally named Aristocles, and Aristotle– who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates and to have been deeply influenced by his teacher's unjust death.
Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Plato is thought to have lectured at the Academy, although the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. They have historically been used to teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.
57 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2020
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 25, 2024
In this dialogue, Plato discusses the subject as to whether excellence can be taught. After the usual argumentative dead ends, Socrates informs Meno Plato: Annotated that as there are no generally agreed-upon teachers of excellence, that, in fact, excellence cannot be taught. I guess the Marist Catholic priests who taught me in high school were not apprised of that fact as the school motto was Quacumque excelsa, "Whatever is excellent."
March 4, 2025
really interesting dialogue. I started this for a class and found the philosophy only vaugely interesting because I got sidetracked with existential dread about wishing i had done a classics degree like i really shoudlve all those years ago and ahhh why didn't i ever properly learn greek. The uni seems to think
δεῖ τοῦτο ποιῆσα and now I am here reading a clunky translation of this instead of wigging out over the parsing of first declension greek adjectives like how the gods intended for me
δεῖ τοῦτο ποιῆσα and now I am here reading a clunky translation of this instead of wigging out over the parsing of first declension greek adjectives like how the gods intended for me
February 25, 2024
Interesting concept that all knowledge is rememberances from past lives if you were never taught it in this life.
Question for future exploration: If goodness cannot be taught, how is it acquired? What is good other than the aspects put forward by Meno? Is good following pure forms of nature? Can nature ever be bad, or is the only way nature bad when it becomes corrupted by society or life contrary to purity of nature? Perhaps it just exists and it’s only our societal norms that dictate the good or bad, but having no objective good in reality reeks of postmodernism and ultimately, I believe, untrue.
Question for future exploration: If goodness cannot be taught, how is it acquired? What is good other than the aspects put forward by Meno? Is good following pure forms of nature? Can nature ever be bad, or is the only way nature bad when it becomes corrupted by society or life contrary to purity of nature? Perhaps it just exists and it’s only our societal norms that dictate the good or bad, but having no objective good in reality reeks of postmodernism and ultimately, I believe, untrue.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews