Socrates Definition: Assessing the Failure of a Persuasive Speech in Plato’s Meno

Socrates is of course a historical figure. For our purposes, he is a figment of Plato's imagination. Similar to the ending of a movie saying " all characters are fictional and any similarity in name or personality is strictly coincidental." I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. From the beginning then, we must consider that all of Plato's works are fictional. We must also consider the fact that these arguments were totally constructed from one mind as opposed to the many that are represented in the text. It makes a difference when one person is arguing both sides of the argument.

In the Phaedrus Socrates outlines what a good speech consists of: 'Every good speech must be put together like a living creature, with a body of it's own; it must be neither without heads nor without legs; and it must have a middle and extremities that are fitting both to one another and to the whole work.' (Plato 246c)

First of all, a creature is made up of all the same kind of parts. This may sound strange, but consider an automobile. An auto made by Ford is entirely made of Ford parts. A Chevrolet is composed of strictly Chevy parts, and so on. This applies to an argument. How do we decide what is part of an argument and what is not? This is the next logical question. The answer is to this question is not simple. How many digressions are allowed before we decide that the argument has lost its form? That cannot be easily answered. We already know that every argument that Socrates makes is very complex, with many digressions, and several people usually involved.

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A creature has many different parts with various functions, yet they all serve the same purpose: keeping the creature alive to see another day. When considering Plato's Meno and deciphering the arguments in the text, we must look closely in order to decide whether or not this text satisfies all the requirements of Socrates' "good speech".

The main question in the Meno involves virtue. Mainly, "what is virtue?". This brings about many other questions and answers throughout the discussion of this question. These include: "can virtue be taught?", "what is right opinion and how does it differ from knowledge?", " is the soul immortal?". Now, what do these questions have to do with virtue and the original question? This is Socrates'/Plato's specialty. Why not answer one question with many others? You cannot can you? No.

The definition of a question from dictionary.com is: "The act of asking; interrogation; inquiry; as, to examine by question and answer. It seems that Socrates is not in the habit of the answer end of it. It is for this reason that this argument is not only difficult to follow, it is rather difficult to understand.

For this reason and this reason alone that Socrates does not make a "good speech". How can one make up a creature of parts that don't fit and don't serve any purpose. It is as if this creature of Socrates' is made up of appendixes, a body part that has no purpose. If we use Socrates' definition of "good speech" he most definitely fails at making one in Plato's Meno. If by definition a question needs an answer, Socrates never responds to anything. He automatically fails on that level. Also, if this living creature of a speech consists of pieces of argumentation such as we see in the Meno, Socrates fails at making a "good speech" altogether.

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