Virtue in the Cave Moral Inquiry in Plato's Meno [Hardcover]

In this radical new interpretation of Plato's Meno, Roslyn Weiss exposes the farcical nature of the slave-boy-demonstration and challenges the widely held assumption that the Meno introduces Platonic metaphysical and epistemological innovations into an otherwise Socratic dialogue. She shows that the Meno is intended as a defense not of all inquiry but of moral inquiry alone, and that it locates the validity of Socratic method in its ability to arrive not at moral knowledge but at the far more modest moral true belief.

Through a careful, and provocative, reading of Plato's Meno, Weiss identifies serious problems in its orthodox interpretations, offering an alternative that is responsive to the dialogue's drama.Virtue in the Cavewill appeal not only to students of ancient philosophy and the classics, but also to anyone who is interested in how to live right in a world of moral uncertainty.

Weiss defends another highly original reading...Weiss offers detailed exegeses of some of the more puzzling aspects of the dialogue-most notably, Meno's paradox of inquiry and the geometrical session involving Socrates and Meno's slave boy. --Ancient Philosophy