Key Arguments

• After the boy reaches aporia about the side of the eight‑foot square, Socrates highlights his progress: "he did not know at first, and he does not know now, what is the side of a figure of eight feet: but then he thought that he knew, and answered confidently as if he knew, and had no difficulty; now he has a difficulty, and neither knows nor fancies that he knows."
• He asks Meno whether the boy "is not better off in knowing his ignorance?", leading Meno to agree: "I think that he is."
• Socrates asks whether, by making the boy doubt and giving him "the 'torpedo's shock,'" they have done him any harm; Meno replies, "I think not," implicitly accepting that this state is an improvement.
• Socrates argues that without first being brought into perplexity, the boy would never have inquired into or learned what he only fancied he knew: "do you suppose that he would ever have enquired into or learned what he fancied that he knew … until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know, and had desired to know?"
• Meno agrees: "I think not, Socrates," and then explicitly concedes that "he was the better for the torpedo's touch?"—"I think so."

Source Quotes

SOCRATES: Do you see, Meno, what advances he has made in his power of recollection? He did not know at first, and he does not know now, what is the side of a figure of eight feet: but then he thought that he knew, and answered confidently as if he knew, and had no difficulty; now he has a difficulty, and neither knows nor fancies that he knows. MENO: True.

MENO: True. SOCRATES: Is he not better off in knowing his ignorance? MENO: I think that he is.

MENO: I think that he is. SOCRATES: If we have made him doubt, and given him the 'torpedo's shock,' have we done him any harm? MENO: I think not.

MENO: True. SOCRATES: But do you suppose that he would ever have enquired into or learned what he fancied that he knew, though he was really ignorant of it, until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know, and had desired to know? MENO: I think not, Socrates.

MENO: I think not, Socrates. SOCRATES: Then he was the better for the torpedo's touch? MENO: I think so.

Key Concepts

• now he has a difficulty, and neither knows nor fancies that he knows.
• Is he not better off in knowing his ignorance?
• If we have made him doubt, and given him the 'torpedo's shock,' have we done him any harm?
• do you suppose that he would ever have enquired into or learned what he fancied that he knew, though he was really ignorant of it, until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know, and had desired to know?
• Then he was the better for the torpedo's touch?

Context

In the middle of the slave‑boy episode, after the boy admits ignorance, Socrates turns to Meno to interpret what has just occurred and to defend the cognitive and moral value of aporia produced by the Socratic method.