there is a meno files that u gatta read.and write papers follows instruction. i uploaded example file too.thx
Meno’s First Attempt at Virtue Meno (71e-72a) This passage is Meno’s first attempt at saying what virtue is. He claims that “there is no difficulty about it” and goes on to confidently state what counts as virtue for each role that a person plays in society. For a male citizen it is “managing the city’s affairs capably, and so that he will help his friends and injure his foes,” while for a woman it is efficiently managing the household (71e). He continues, claiming that for a child virtue is one thing, for an old person it is another, and for a slave it is something else, so that, “For every act and every time of life, with reference to each separate function, there is a virtue for each one of us, and similarly, I should say, a vice” (72a). This occurs in the context of Meno approaching Socrates and inquiring of him whether or not virtue can be taught. Socrates tells Meno that he cannot answer his question, because it presupposes that he knows what virtue is, and Socrates claims that neither he, nor anyone else he has met, knows this. Meno is shocked when he hears this, dismissively asking Socrates, “Is this the report that we are to take home about you?” (71c). Meno had come to test the wisdom of Socrates, yet is both disappointed and taken aback by his answer. Meno thinks he knows what virtue is, and the quick answer he gives above in terms of managing the city and the household, for a man and woman respectively, shows that he has not gone further in his philosophical thinking about virtue than the common opinions of those around him. In fact, although he claims that there are as many virtues as there are stations in life, he is quite short on concrete answers, giving only two actual examples. This passage is important because it illustrates not only Meno’s hubris and lack of reflective thought, but because it shows us the kind of thing Socrates is asking for by showing us the kind of thing he is not. Meno has not given Socrates the essence or definition of virtue. Instead, he has at best given him a list (a poor one at that) of virtues. The problem with this procedure is that if one encounters an example of a behavior not on the list, one will have no idea whether or not it is to count as a virtue. In order to know this, one would first have to know the essence or definition of virtue, the unifying factor that unites all examples of virtuous acts and makes them virtues. It is this that Socrates is asking for and that he claims no one knows. Without this definition, though people may talk about virtue, and even lecture on it as Meno did, and have their views met with approval by the masses because it is in agreement with their opinions, one will not have true knowledge and insight about the nature of virtue.