Meno formulates what becomes known as ‘Meno’s Paradox’: apparent inquiry is either unnecessary (if one already knows) or impossible (if one does not know at all), challenging the very possibility of learning or investigation.

By Plato, from Meno

Key Arguments

  • Meno asks: “how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know?” and presses how Socrates will “put forth as the subject of enquiry” something unknown.
  • He continues: “if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know?” foregrounding the recognition problem.
  • Socrates summarizes the argument: a man “cannot enquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to enquire; and if not, he cannot; for he does not know the very subject about which he is to enquire.”
  • This dilemma, which Meno asks Socrates to accept as sound, threatens to make all inquiry incoherent and undermines the elenctic project.

Source Quotes

However, I have no objection to join with you in the enquiry. MENO: And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know? What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry?
MENO: And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know? What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know?
What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know? SOCRATES: I know, Meno, what you mean; but just see what a tiresome dispute you are introducing.
SOCRATES: I know, Meno, what you mean; but just see what a tiresome dispute you are introducing. You argue that a man cannot enquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to enquire; and if not, he cannot; for he does not know the very subject about which he is to enquire (Compare Aristot. Post.
Anal.). MENO: Well, Socrates, and is not the argument sound? SOCRATES: I think not.

Key Concepts

  • And how will you enquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know?
  • What will you put forth as the subject of enquiry?
  • And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know?
  • You argue that a man cannot enquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to enquire; and if not, he cannot; for he does not know the very subject about which he is to enquire
  • Well, Socrates, and is not the argument sound?

Context

After both men acknowledge their ignorance about virtue, Meno introduces a skeptical challenge to the very idea of inquiring into the unknown, which Socrates labels a ‘tiresome dispute’ and proceeds to answer.