Table of Contents
Does this definition of virtue include all virtue? Is virtue the same in a child and in a slave, Meno?
Can the child govern his father, or the slave his master; and would he who governed be any longer a slave?
Would you say that ‘justice is virtue’ or ‘justice is a virtue’?
For example, is round ‘a figure’ and there are other figures, or is round the only figure?
Yes, in searching after one virtue we have found many.
But we have been unable to find the common virtue which runs through them all.
All things have a common notion.
For example, I ask you: what is figure?
But that is the wrong answer.
You call them by a common name.
You say that they are all figures, even when opposed to one another.
What is that common nature which you call figure which contains straight and round, and is no more one than the other?
You do not mean to say that the round is round any more than straight, or the straight any more straight than round.
You only assert that the round figure is not more a figure than the straight, or the straight than the round.
To what then do we give the name of figure?
Suppose that when a person asked you this question about figure or colour
He would reply that he is looking for the ‘simile in multis’?
What is that ‘simile in multis’ which you call figure, and which includes not only round and straight figures, but all?
Leave a Comment
Thank you for your comment!
It will appear after review.