Regardless of the metaphysical details, Socrates insists that believing inquiry is possible and obligatory makes us better, braver, and less helpless, whereas accepting skeptical claims like Meno’s paradox would render us idle and resigned.

By Plato, from Meno

Key Arguments

  • Socrates admits that some of what he has said about the soul he is "not altogether confident" about, indicating some uncertainty regarding the precise metaphysics.
  • However, he firmly asserts that "we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know."
  • He presents this as a point on which he has strong practical commitment: "that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power."
  • Meno responds approvingly: "There again, Socrates, your words seem to me excellent," acknowledging the ethical appeal of this anti‑skeptical stance.

Source Quotes

SOCRATES: And I, Meno, like what I am saying. Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;—that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.
Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;—that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power. MENO: There again, Socrates, your words seem to me excellent.

Key Concepts

  • Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident.
  • But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;
  • that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.

Context

After completing the recollection argument and deriving the immortality of the soul, Socrates shifts to a more practical, ethical justification for inquiry in explicit contrast to Meno’s earlier paradox about the impossibility or pointlessness of seeking what one does not know.