Meno

Meno, student of the sophist Gorgias.  Meno asks Socrates if virtue can be taught.  Actually  arete, or excellence or greatness or power etc). Socrates reduces Meno to aporia  (via the business of questioning him on nature of virtue).  He demonstrates that there is innate knowledge (anamnesis) by the “Socratic Method” whereby he questions the “Boy”, one of Meno’s slaves, regarding the doubling of a square.  Or some such—the Boy had more innate knowledge than I have because he lost me not that.  He also goes into epistemology.  There is true belief, but that is not knowledge.  And then there is Meno’s paradox, you cannot search for what you know, because you know it, but you also cannot search for what you don’t know because you don’t know it and don’t know what you are looking for. This is resolved by explaining that you do not have to know something to search for it, you just have to have true beliefs to lead you to knowledge.  Read Meno here.