Скачать или смотреть Meno Audiobook, by Plato, read by Benjamin Jowett

Plato's Meno is a dialogue between Socrates and Meno, who is a young and ambitious politician from Thessaly. The main topic of the dialogue is the nature and origin of virtue, which Meno initially defines as the ability to rule over others. Socrates challenges this definition and asks Meno to provide a more general and universal one, that applies to all kinds of virtue. However, Meno fails to do so, and Socrates shows him that his attempts are either too narrow or too vague. Socrates also introduces the method of elenchus, which is a form of cross-examination that aims to expose the contradictions and inconsistencies in one's beliefs.

In the course of the dialogue, Socrates and Meno encounter several difficulties and paradoxes, such as the problem of inquiry (how can one search for something that one does not know?), the problem of teaching (how can one teach something that one does not know?), and the problem of recollection (how can one remember something that one has never learned?). To address these issues, Socrates proposes the theory of anamnesis, which states that the soul is immortal and has innate knowledge of everything, and that learning is a process of rediscovering this knowledge. Socrates demonstrates this theory by eliciting geometrical truths from an uneducated slave boy, who has never learned geometry before.

The dialogue also involves a third interlocutor, Anytus, who is a prominent Athenian politician and one of the future accusers of Socrates. Anytus joins the conversation when Socrates and Meno are discussing whether virtue can be taught or not. Anytus asserts that virtue can be taught by the most reputable and honorable men in the city, such as the statesmen and generals. However, Socrates questions this claim and asks Anytus to name some examples of virtuous men who have successfully taught their sons or others to be virtuous. Anytus fails to provide any convincing examples and becomes angry with Socrates, accusing him of corrupting the youth and mocking the elders.

The dialogue ends with an inconclusive result, as Socrates and Meno admit that they still do not know what virtue is, nor whether it can be taught or not. However, Socrates suggests that they have made some progress by realizing their own ignorance and by becoming more eager to learn. He also proposes a tentative hypothesis that virtue is a kind of wisdom that comes from God as a gift, and that only God knows who has it and who does not.