Knowledge and Correct Impressions in Plato’s Meno

This chapter examines three passages of Plato’s Meno, showing how they relate to a theme concerning Gorgias’ professed ability to answer questions without knowledge. Addressing some notorious puzzles about whether Plato thinks that true doxa is sufficient for life, and whether one can progress from true doxa to knowledge, the chapter argues that here, as in other dialogues, ‘knowledge’ means knowledge of types, not tokens, and that for practical action what is required is always doxa—to identify the right token—not a theoretical understanding of the type. Plato shows that Socrates’ demand for an abstract philosophical grasp of ‘what it is’ about some concept like virtue has no practical relevance, and that Gorgias is right, that one can indeed answer questions correctly without it.