Over 2000 years into the future, the pensive world still contemplates this inevitable truth. During those 2000 years, Plato's Meno has been scrutinized repeatedly, yet Socrates" ideas still stands strong. In that fateful evening, 2000 in the past, the mouths of Socrates and Menon gave birth to many great ideas, but one stands out. Man is born neither good nor evil; he is a free being with the will to do both. However, that which is virtuous in his life is made virtuous by luck alone.
The majority of the earth would have no problem agreeing that a man is born with free will to do evil, or good. However, it is by the means of which a person does good, or evil, that is more ambiguous. Socrates believes that "by virtue we are good (53)," however; virtue cannot be taught. Menon and Socrates both agree that to teach virtue, one must at least have the quality of virtue. Upon examining the great and scholarly sage Themistocles, whom would be considered "a grand teacher of virtue (60)," they still decreed that it could not be taught. For, Themistocles was able to tutor his son in a great amount of skills, but not "make the boy better in that wisdom in which he was himself wise (60)." Thus, if even the most honorable man was unable to teach his son the ways of virtue, then virtue must be unteachable. And it naturally follows that "if there are no teachers, there are no learners (63)." Likewise, if virtue is good and unteachable, then the polar opposite must also be unteachable. Thus, man is not taught to be evil or good. He does his bidding based on his will.
The majority of the earth would also have no problem agreeing that the most humans desire to be good and virtuous. So by what means do humans become good and virtuous? It is a complicated question, but Socrates seeks to answer it with this: it comes by luck. "Virtue is shown as coming to us, whenever it comes, by divine dispensation (68).
