In Plato’s Meno, Socrates argues that human beings do not desire anything that they perceive as bad. In spite of the fact that his argument is valid—that is, the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises—there are objections that arise if we accept all the premises as actually true. I will attack the soundness of Socrates’ argument. In the first premise, Socrates asserts the common intuition that bad things are harmful. This premise is not under criticism, since everyone agrees that bad things are harmful. In the second premise, Socrates asserts that human beings may or may not have a correct comprehension between being harmed and not being harmed. He claims that people “don’t desire bad things, ignorant as they are about them, but desire things they thought were good, but in fact are bad” (77e). The intention of human beings is always good, since they would never attempt to purposely harm themselves. Thus, the problem here was ignorance, or lack of a correct opinion towards what constituted as being harmed and not being
In Plato’s Meno, Socrates argues that human beings do not desire anything that they perceive as bad. In spite of the fact that his argument is valid—that is, the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises—there are objections that arise if we accept all the premises as actually true. I will attack the soundness of Socrates’ argument. In the first premise, Socrates asserts the common intuition that bad things are harmful. This premise is not under criticism, since everyone agrees that bad things are harmful. In the second premise, Socrates asserts that human beings may or may not have a correct comprehension between being harmed and not being harmed. He claims that people “don’t desire bad things, ignorant as they are about them, but desire things they thought were good, but in fact are bad” (77e). The intention of human beings is always good, since they would never attempt to purposely harm themselves. Thus, the problem here was ignorance, or lack of a correct opinion towards what constituted as being harmed and not being