Socrates: Well, here we are at the appointed time, Meno.
Meno: Yes, and it looks like a fine day for it, too.
Socrates: And I see our serving boy is also here.
Boy: Yes, I am, and ready to do your bidding.
Socrates: Wonderful. Now, Meno, I want you to be on your guard,
as you were the other day, to insure that I teach nothing to the boy,
but rather pull out of his mind the premises which are already there.
Meno: I shall do my best, Socrates.
Socrates: I can ask more of no man, Meno, and I am certain that
you will do well, and I hope I will give you no call to halt me
in my saying if I should say too much, in which you would feel I
was actually teaching the boy the answer to this riddle.
Meno: No, Socrates, I don't think I will have to call you on
anything you might say today, for the most wondrously learned men
of the group of Pythagoras have spent many hours, weeks, and even
months and years toiling in their manner to arrive at the mystic
solutions to the puzzles formed by the simple squares with which
we worked the other day. Therefore, I am certain to regain my
virtue, which I lost the other day, when I was so steadfastly
proven by you to be in error in my statement that the root of a
square with an area of two square feet was beyond this boy,
who is a fine boy, whom we must make to understand that he should
do his best here, and not feel that he has done any wrongness by
causing me to lose my virtue to you the other day.
Socrates: Meno, my friend, it is my opinion, and I hope it will
soon be yours, that your virtue was increased the other day,
rather than decreased.
Meno: I fail to see how, when I was humiliated by seeing
this young boy, of modest education, arrive in minutes at the
highest mystic levels of the magic of the Pythagoreans.
Most of all when I wagered as many dinners as you could eat
at my house that this could not be the case.
Socrates: First, friend Meno, let me assure you that I will
promise never to eat you out of house and home, not that I could
if I tried, for my tastes are simple and your wallet is large.
Nevertheless, Meno, my friend, I would hasten to add that I will
promise, if you like, not to ever come to your table uninvited.
As a second reason you and your virtue should feel better after
the events of the other day, because you were in error before,
but are less in error now. And the path to virtue, at least one
aspect of the path to virtue, is in finding and correcting error.
Meno: Socrates, you know you are always welcome at my table,
except when I am suffering from my ulcer, which you aggravate
greatly, or at times when I am entertaining the highest nobles
of the land, and you would appear out of place in your clothing.
(Socrates was known for his simple attire, and for wearing his
garments over and over till they wore out. However, the only
surviving example of his writing is a laundry list, so we know he
kept his clothes clean and somewhat presentable, though simple)
Socrates: I would hope you would have me over because I was
a good influence on your development, than for any other reason.
I notice you did not respond to my claim to have increased
your virtue, through the exorcism of your error.
Meno: Well Socrates, you know that it is not always the
easiest thing to give up one's ways, even though one has found
them to be in error. Therefore, please forgive me if I am not
sounding as grateful as you would like for your lessons.
Socrates: The easier one finds it to give up the ways of error,
the easier it is to replace the error with that which we hope
is not in error. Is this not the way to virtue?
Meno: Yes, Socrates, and you know the path is hard,
and that we often stumble and fall.
Socrates: Yes, but is it not true that we stumble and fall
over the obstacles which we make for ourselves to trip over?
Meno: Certainly that is most true, Socrates, in some cases.
Socrates: Well, then, let us proceed, for I see the hour is upon us
when I do my best thinking, and that hour shall be passed soon,
and hopefully with it shall pass a bit of your ignorance.
Meno: Well said, Socrates. I am with you.
Socrates: And shall have we a wager on the events of today?
Meno: Certainly, Socrates.
Socrates: And what shall you wager against this boy proving
that the length of the root of a square with an area of two
square feet, cannot be made by the ratio of two whole numbers?
Meno: You may have anything it is in my power to give,
unless it cause harm to myself or to another to give it.
Socrates: Well said, my friend Meno, and I shall leave it at
that. And what shall I offer you as a return wager?
Meno: Well, the easiest thing which comes to mind is to
wager all those dinners you won from me the other day.
Socrates: Very well, so be it.
Meno: Now Socrates, since you are my friend, I must give you
this friendly warning: you know that the Pythagoreans jealously
guard their secrets with secret meetings, protected by secret
handshakes, secret signs, passwords, and all that, do you not?
Socrates: I have heard as much, friend Meno.
Meno: Then be sure that they will seek revenge upon you for
demystifying the ideas and concepts which they worked so long and
hard and secretly to create and protect; for they are a jealous lot
in the extreme, hiding in mountain caves, which are hardly fit
to be called monasteries by even the most hardened monk.
Socrates: I take your meaning, friend Meno, and thank you
for your consideration, but I think that if I lose, that they
will not bother me, and if I win, it will appear so simple to
everyone, that if would be sheerest folly for anyone to make
even the smallest gesture to protect its fallen mystic secrecy.
Besides, I have a citizen's responsibility to Athens and to all
Athenians to do my best to protect them and enlighten them.
Meno: Very well, Socrates. Please do not ever say that I did not
try to warn you, especially after they have nailed you to a cross
in a public place, where anyone and everyone could hear you say
that the fault of this lay in my name.
Socrates: Do not worry, friend Meno, for if I were not
to show this simple feat of logic to you, I should just walk
down the street and find someone else, though not someone whose
company and conversation I should enjoy as much as yours.
Meno: Thank you, friend Socrates.
Socrates: Now, boy, do you remember me, and the squares with
which we worked and played the other day?
Boy: Yes, sir, Socrates.
Socrates: Please, Meno, instruct the boy to merely call me
by my name, as does everyone else. Calling me "sir" merely puts
me off my mental stride, and, besides, it will create a greater
distance between me and the boy.
Meno: You heard what Socrates, said, boy. Can you do it?
Boy: Yes, sir. (Turning to Socrates) You know I like you
very much, and that I call you "sir" not only out of relation of
our positions in society, but also because of my true respect and
admiration, especially after the events of the other day.
Socrates: Yes, boy. And I will try to live up to your
expectations. (Turning to Meno) Would you allow some reward for
the boy, as well as that which is for myself, if he should prove
to your satisfaction that the square root of two is irrational?
Meno: Certainly, Socrates.
Socrates: (taking the boy aside) What would you like
the most in the whole world, boy?
Boy: You mean anything?
Socrates: Well, I can't guarantee to get it for you, but at
least I can ask it, and it shouldn't hurt to ask; and besides,
as you should know, it is very hard to expect someone to give
you what you want, if you never let them know you want it.
Boy: Well, Socrates... you know what I would want.
Socrates: Do I?
Boy: Better than I knew the square root of two the other day.
Socrates: You want to be a free man, then, and a citizen.
Boy: (looking down) Yes.
Socrates: Don't look down, then, for that is an admirable
desire for one to have, and speaks highly of him who has it.
I will speak to Meno, while you hold your tongue.