This is an intermediate Greek course for which Beginner’s Greek or similar is a prerequisite.

We will read the Greek text of the Meno, with the assistance of a detailed vocabulary and intermediate commentary. PDFs will be supplied of the text and all supplementary grammatical materials.

Plato’s Meno is the only work directed squarely to the question of human excellence of virtue, which is the central question of the Socratic dialogues. The Meno provides a synopsis of the Socratic approach to philosophy in its difference from the sophistry of a Gorgias, on the one hand, and from the ordinary political understanding of an Anytus (soon to be Socrates’ main prosecutor), on the other. The dialogue touches on themes such as the relation of human happiness and nobility, the opinions about things and their being, recollection and learning, myth and reason and the very possibility of philosophy as a guide to life.