Meno.
Socrates, Meno.
But this cannot apply to all persons.
Is virtue the same in a child and in a slave, Meno? Can the child govern his father, or the slave his master; and would he who governed be any longer a slave?
Men. I think not, Socrates.
Soc. No, indeed; there would be small reason in that. Yet once more, fair friend; according to you, virtue is 'the power of governing;' but do you not add 'justly and not unjustly'?
Men. Yes, Socrates; I agree there; for justice is virtue.
Soc. Would you say 'virtue' Meno, or 'a virtue'?
Men. What do you mean?
Soc. I mean as I might say about anything; that a round, for example, is 'a figure' and not simply 'figure,' and I should adopt this mode of speaking, because there are other figures.
Men. Quite right; and that is just what I am saying about virtue—that there are other virtues as well as justice.
74 Soc. What are they? tell me the names of them, as I would tell you the names of the other figures if you asked me.
Meno names the virtues, but is unable to get at the common notion of them. Men. Courage and temperance and wisdom and magnanimity are virtues; and there are many others.
Soc. Yes, Meno; and again we are in the same case: in searching after one virtue we have found many, though not in the same way as before; but we have been unable to find the common virtue which runs through them all.
Men. Why, Socrates, even now I am not able to follow you in the attempt to get at one common notion of virtue as of other things.
Soc. No wonder; but I will try to get nearer if I can, for you know that all things have a common notion. Suppose now that some one asked you the question which I asked before: Meno, he would say, what is figure? And if you answered 'roundness,' he would reply to you, in my way of speaking, by asking whether you would say that roundness is 'figure' or 'a figure;' and you would answer 'a figure.'
Men. Certainly.
Soc. And for this reason—that there are other figures?
Men. Yes.
Soc. And if he proceeded to ask. What other figures are there? you would have told him.
