Socrates’ questioning of Meno’s slave boy in the geometry example is meant to show that the boy is not taught new information but led, through his own reasoning, from false confidence to acknowledged ignorance and then to a correct answer, illustrating recollection rather than instruction.

By Plato, from Meno

Key Arguments

  • Socrates explicitly frames the experiment to Meno as a test: "Attend now to the questions which I ask him, and observe whether he learns of me or only remembers."
  • He stresses that he only asks questions and gives no explanations, repeatedly telling Meno to "observe him while he recalls the steps in regular order" and later: "I shall only ask him, and not teach him, and he shall share the enquiry with me."
  • The boy initially answers confidently that the side of the double square must be double, and Socrates draws the resulting figure to show that it yields four times the area, revealing the boy’s belief was a mere guess: "He only guesses that because the square is double, the line is double."
  • Through further questioning, the boy proposes a side of three feet, then realizes this gives nine, not eight square feet, and finally admits "Indeed, Socrates, I do not know," moving from unwarranted confidence to aporia.
  • Socrates then leads him, via the construction of four equal squares and the diagonals, to recognize that the side of the eight‑foot square is the diagonal: "you, Meno's slave, are prepared to affirm that the double space is the square of the diagonal?"
  • Meno agrees that "they were all his own" answers, and that no one has taught the boy geometry, while still conceding that "the fact, Socrates, is undeniable" that the boy has this knowledge, supporting Socrates’ claim that the boy has in himself the notions that are being elicited.

Source Quotes

MENO: Yes, indeed; he was born in the house. SOCRATES: Attend now to the questions which I ask him, and observe whether he learns of me or only remembers. MENO: I will.
BOY: Clearly, Socrates, it will be double. SOCRATES: Do you observe, Meno, that I am not teaching the boy anything, but only asking him questions; and now he fancies that he knows how long a line is necessary in order to produce a figure of eight square feet; does he not? MENO: Yes.
MENO: Certainly not. SOCRATES: He only guesses that because the square is double, the line is double. MENO: True.
BOY: No. SOCRATES: But from what line?—tell me exactly; and if you would rather not reckon, try and show me the line. BOY: Indeed, Socrates, I do not know. SOCRATES: Do you see, Meno, what advances he has made in his power of recollection?
BOY: Certainly, Socrates. SOCRATES: What do you say of him, Meno? Were not all these answers given out of his own head? MENO: Yes, they were all his own.
You must know about him, if, as you say, he was born and bred in your house. MENO: And I am certain that no one ever did teach him. SOCRATES: And yet he has the knowledge?

Key Concepts

  • Attend now to the questions which I ask him, and observe whether he learns of me or only remembers.
  • Do you observe, Meno, that I am not teaching the boy anything, but only asking him questions;
  • He only guesses that because the square is double, the line is double.
  • Indeed, Socrates, I do not know.
  • What do you say of him, Meno? Were not all these answers given out of his own head?
  • And I am certain that no one ever did teach him.

Context

Beginning with the introduction of Meno’s slave boy and through the full geometric construction of the double square, Socrates stages a pedagogical experiment in front of Meno to display his claim that inquiry proceeds by recollection rather than didactic teaching.