Distinguishing Whether Virtue Is Knowledge

Distinguishing Whether retributoryness Is KnowledgePlato presents Socrates views on the question whether virtuousness is go by means ofledge and whether it rear end be taught in several dialogues, most notably in Meno. In this dialogue, Socrates makes some(prenominal) different arguments on the subject of lawfulness. These arguments admit how law is defined and whether or not slew fire direct it. He examines the ways that moral excellence arse be attained whether or not unitary is born being virtuous, whether right can be taught or it is an different situationor for rectitudes people take hold. In this essay I pull up stakes focus on the question of whether virtue can be taught. Platos answer is that virtue cannot be taught. In this essay I entrust suggest that Plato could deem close in the questions a bit differently, which would have likely given him a different answer. In particular I will argue that Plato might have d atomic number 53 better to lease whe ther virtue could be larn instead of asking whether virtue can be taught.The Meno begins with Meno asking Socrates whether virtue can be taught. The argument hence is drifted whence to another question, what is knowledge. wherefore Meno proposed an interesting paradox one can neer find verboten anything new either one knows it already, in which eccentric at that place is no need to find it out, or else one does not, and in that case there is no sufficeor of recognizing it when found (Plato 1997, 80d-e.). In other words if one does not already know what arte (virtue) is, he sham even search for it, because if he does not know what it is already, then even h he searches, he wont be equal to(p) to know when one has found it. Socrates suggests a way to shape this dilemma which is based on the Pythagorean view of the immortal soul. accord to that notion, the soul, after the physical body dies, is reincarnated and thus never destroyed. If one can never acquire any new knowl edge and at the corresponding time it is obvious we are always encyclopedism new things, then it is be concluded that learning must be a intimacy of recollection of past valet de chambreners experiences and knowledge. In other words there is no such thing as teaching, but that remembering.In the Meno he demonstrated with a young slave male child who manifestly didnt have any knowledge of geometry. By asking the young boy questions he managed to show that the boy had knowledge of certain mathematical theorems.Meno asks over again his original question, that is whether one can be taught virtue, or one gets virtue by nature or in some other way. Socrates consents to drop dead but argues that they need a common ground due to the fact that neither of them can say at this point what virtue is. Then Meno is made agree that if virtue is not knowledge then it cannot be taught, and if a knowledge then it can be taught. He points out that one can teach something only if one knows wha t it is that he is teaching. psyche who does not know himself how to drive a car seems unlikely to be able to teach someone else how to. Socrates and Meno much agree that there is no one that truly knows what is meant by virtue and because of this reason cannot be taught. jibe to Socrates, If virtue could be taught, we should be able to know not only those who teach it but also those who learn from them, which in truth we cannot comfortably do (Plato 1997,HYPERLINK http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=plat.+meno+96c 96c). Socrates claims that instructors for horsemanship, medicine, etc. exist and everybody recognizes these as genuine teachers, whereas people dont agree about whether the Sophists really do teach virtue. Socrates goes one to intercommunicate of Thucydides, who had two sons, neither of which was considered to be virtuous. However, it is said that Thucydides educated his children in many different disciplines, but it seems that he could not find a teach er of virtue even though he found teachers for other aspects of life he found valuable. He could not teach it himself either, even though he himself was known to be virtuous. on that pointfore it seems virtue cannot be a form of knowledge. In order for something to be knowledge, someone must be able to teach it to others. Socrates concludes that virtue cannot be taught and that there is no means or method by which virtue can be acquired. Virtue is simply shown as coming to us, whenever it comes, by divine dispensation (reference?)In my view, if Plato had framed the questions somewhat differently, he might have gotten a different answer. That is Plato could have better asked whether virtue could be versed instead of asking whether virtue can be taught. What I mean to say is that asking whether one can be taught something entails that the relationship of a bookman and a teacher, whereas asking whether something can be learned implies only that there is a student (whose life experien ces might be said to be a teacher.) For example, to ask whether I was taught geometry is to ask whether a teacher taught me geometry. Whereas to ask whether I learned geometry is simply to ask whether I learned it, whether or not I was taught it by a geometry teacher or learned geometry myself either from (lets say) a book or by some other means.Learning can come in various forms. In order to learn something, one does not require a teacher in the strict sense. For instance, learning can be achieved from studying people who have virtue and stock-still the latter may not be aware that they are studied. So a man may be learning virtue, and his teachers may be virtuous, even though the teachers might not even be alive. other form of learning is experience. Virtue may be learned through personal experience. In this example, the teacher would be both life experiences and the broody nature of the learner. There is still another form of learning. A man can learn, even if he cannot offer an news report of how he learned or of what he exactly knows. For instance, after someone has been through a particular problem in his life, he can then encounter that a relative of his is going through the akin problem. And although he can know it, he cannot give an explanation of how he recognized it. other example is that of the musicians or painters who have learned their craft and are able to perform well, but find it almost impossible to give an explanation of what they have learned.So the question whether virtue can be taught is a much different, and narrower, than whether virtue can be learned. Plato is right in suggesting that virtue cannot be taught. I believe that we all know or have heard of people who recite rules of virtue (such us be sympathize with or be honest,) but find it impossible to put them into practice. for certain in this sense virtue cannot be taught. A mentioned above, having the ability to be virtuous is like having the ability to be musical, which is to some extent instinctual. So, for example, it could be argued that knowing when, for example, to offer help to a friend when he ineluctably it, is a matter of instinct or judgment.All of this means that although virtue may not be taught, this is not to say that virtue cant be learned. Plato suggests the notion that virtue is inborn. Certainly this is to some degree true. There are some people with an exceptional capacity for virtues like compassion, etc. since they were born. Yet others look as if they are born with little to no moral conscience, which seems to be necessary for virtue to exist. However what this means is just that the foundation of virtue is inborn, not that it cant be learned.In the same way that we comprehend the fact that one can be preached how to be virtuous but fail to be virtuous in practice, the chat is also possible people can refine the ways they gain virtue, they may become to a greater extent virtuous by reflective practice, and their views of h ow to act in a virtuous way changes significantly as they call forth up. In my view, if Plato put his questions in a different way (that is if he had asked whether virtue can be learned, instead of whether virtue can be taught) he might have found a much more affirmative answer.