Through the twists and turns of Plato’s Meno Socrates explores a variety of ideas that have as much value today as they did when Plato first penned this dialogue. The irony, of course, is that the interlocutor, Meno, wanted to know whether virtue was teachable. Socrates, responding in a typical fashion, states that he cannot answer this question without first knowing what virtue is. Through many failed attempts to define virtue we are taken on an interesting journey.

One of the ideas encountered near the end of this dialogue, when the Socratic dialectic has almost completely broken down, is the concept of true opinion. In the Meno Socrates defines true opinion as something which is true in reality, but, perhaps, not known as fact by the person in possession of this opinion. Socrates states that, as long as someone possesses true opinion, he will always be right.

Now this may seem obvious to some, but Socrates takes it a step further:

98C - So that right opinion will be no whit inferior to knowledge in worth or usefulness as regards our actions, nor will the man who has right opinion be inferior to him who has knowledge

Here Socrates equates true opinion and knowledge. In Socrates view these are one and the same. Or are they?

97E - For these (true opinions), so long as they stay with us, are a fine possession, and effect all that is good; but they do not care to stay for long, and run away out of the human soul, and thus are of no great value until one makes them fast with causal reasoning

There it is. There is one distinct and permanent advantage that knowledge has over true opinion. True opinion because it, in most cases, does “not care to stay for long, and runs away out of the human soul” has a serious deficiency.

Many replace knowledge with true opinion. In other words, there is a wholesale exchange going on. True opinion is equal in every way to real knowledge. Taken a step further false opinion has also been tossed in with true opinion. True opinion or unjustified beliefs simply, “become true for me” whether it is, in fact, a reflection of reality. Socrates didn’t scoff at true opinion as he understood it and also appreciated its utility, but he also understood the greater value of real knowledge:

98A - But when once they are fastened, in the first place they turn into knowledge, and in the second, are abiding. And this is why knowledge is more prized than right opinion: the one transcends the other by its trammels.

Sadly the search for knowledge or to make true opinion “stay for long” is, for the most part, a lost art. Bcause of this the possessors of this true opinion do not have the ability to determine if these opinions are in fact right. If they care at all. Yes, Socrates says that, because they are true they will always be right. I agree that the effects of this knowledge (moral decisions for example) will be right, but the owner will have no reasons to believe his opinions are true. I think Socrates hits it right on here with regards to true opinion being a bit inferior to knowledge. Reason can “fasten” this true opinions and transform them into real knowledge. The real question is, are we a Meno and simply too tired to do the heavy lifting required to discover these gems?