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In Plato's Dialogue "Meno", Meno comes to Socrates with the question "Can virtue be taught?" A timeless question that addresses which virtues are innate and which can be learned. Through Plato's question asking the two come to the conclusion that virtue cannot be taught nor is it innate. One critical passage to this argument is 86c - 96d. In this passage an attempt to define virtue is made, along with what encompasses virtue and what …

…figureheads. It would seem feasible that people are born with a capacity to learn virtue. This would explain the shortcomings of Themistocles' son and the other sons of worthy men that fell short of their father's virtue. A capacity to learn virtue coincides with Socrates final statement in the Meno that "Virtue appears to be present in those of us who may possess it as a gift from the gods." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Plato's five dialogues