Meno’s Paradox and the Sisyphus

Chapter 8 explores the unjustly neglected spurious dialogue, the Sisyphus. It focuses on the Paradox of Deliberation, which neatly mirrors Meno’s Paradox as described in Plato’s Meno. According to the Paradox of Deliberation, deliberation either involves knowledge or is mere guesswork; either way, deliberation is impossible. According to Meno’s Paradox, one either knows or doesn’t know what one is inquiring into; either way, inquiry is impossible. Chapter 8 compares the two paradoxes, and asks what if any solution the two dialogues suggest to the paradox each considers. Here it’s relevant to note that knowing and guess work don’t seem exhaustive; there are also true beliefs that aren’t mere guesses. On some ways of understanding knowing and not knowing, they are exhaustive; but on other ways of understanding them, they aren’t.