Knowledge In Protagoras, Euthydemus, And Meno

Before modern philosophy, Plato wrote numerous important philosophical works during his lifetime, but some of the more important ones are his works involving Socrates. With these works, Plato touched upon important beliefs that seem clear-cut to us, but are much more complicated than believed. One of these beliefs involves the meaning and importance of knowledge. The topic of knowledge is important in his works Protagoras, Euthydemus, and Meno. There are three points he brings up involving proper knowledge: the importance of good teaching, the necessity of knowledge to do what is best in the world, and how virtue is a type of knowledge. In the end, I will explain why I agree with the argument of knowledge that Plato has raised in these three

Say that a student walks into a math classroom, and the teacher begins to teach. The teacher says 2 + 2 is 5: it is commonly known this is not correct due to the proper knowledge they have gained during their lives, but if this student had never had a math class before, how would they know? The answer is they would not, and that is why good teaching is important for knowledge. This is in Protagoras, a story where a young man named Hippocrates wants to visit a sophist named Protagoras, but he has no idea what exactly a sophist does and whether Protagoras speaks with wisdom or not. Socrates warns, “You put down your money and take the teaching away in your soul by having learned it, and off you go, either helped or injured.” (314b3-b5) This is an important point; good teaching is the basis of knowledge and wisdom, and without the proper foundation, one cannot have productive

Virtue is important when people consider their own characters: virtues are what defines a person, what they stand for, what they believe in. The argument made here is that virtue is a type of knowledge, as Plato states in Meno. In Meno, Socrates and Meno talk about how virtue is not a type of knowledge, up until they describe it. Socrates says, “If then virtue is something in the soul and it must be beneficial, it must be knowledge, since all the qualities of the soul are in themselves neither beneficial nor harmful, but accompanied by wisdom or folly they become harmful or beneficial.” (88c4-88d2) Wisdom is necessary for the characteristics of the soul, such as that brashness is a result of courage without wisdom, and because an understanding is necessary to have virtue, it is a characteristic of