Or good doxa from bad doxa
Published in Original Philosophy
2 days ago (Medium.com)
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Good Doxa and Bad Doxa
In Plato’s dialogue “Meno,” Socrates discusses, among other things, the distinction between good and bad “doxa.” The term “doxa” in ancient Greek philosophy generally refers to belief or opinion, as opposed to certain knowledge (episteme) or science. However, Socrates takes this further. According to him, we can distinguish between good non-scientific opinions (or speculation, or accurate predictions) from bad non-scientific opinions (or inaccurate speculation, or incorrect predictions).
In his dialogue with Meno, Socrates appears to demonstrate how speculative thinking is necessary to find the right path. He asserts that good doxa (or true opinion) “is as effective a guide for correct action as knowledge (…). Therefore, correct opinion is no less valuable than knowledge.”
If someone were to say, “What you’re saying is just an opinion. It’s not science,” you can respond: “According to the dialogue between Meno and Socrates, as recorded by Plato, there are good opinions and bad opinions. A good opinion is one that is on the path to being proven correct.”
Nevertheless, it’s essential to remember that Socrates is extremely rigorous in his definition of a good opinion: it must be flawless. We, who live in the 21th are aware that imperfections are inevitable during scientific progress, but the purpose of science is as least to try to confront and address them, I think.
Yes, We Must Educate Ourselves to Express Opinions and to Dialogue
In the context of the dialogue, which begins with the discussion of the concept of virtue (its funny but sometimes, when trying to answer one question, we discover other equally important ones), the issue of good and bad opinions is addressed because one of Socrates’ few conclusions in this dialogue is that science, or knowledge, is the highest virtue. That is to say, for Socrates, remaining in ignorance is always detrimental (or at least quite risky).
In this sense, we should then give great importance to scientific work, which includes speculation, literature review, and constant experimentation. I completely agree. Particularly, I believe that scientific work should become as popular as democracy has gradually become over the years. And if we allow ourselves to vote, then we should certainly invest heavily in educating ourselves as well, or we will end up voting for all kinds of sophists.
Here is another lessons we can take from Socrates: he emphasized the importance of debating what the common good means in order to determine the best ideas, whereas his opponents, the sophists or those educated by sophists, tended to focus on overly individual and highly circumstantial examples.
How to Read the Socratic Dialogues
I understand that irony can be challenging to grasp, but Socrates employed it extensively. Therefore, it’s essential to be alert to its presence when reading his works. Additionally, when teaching my students about these dialogues, I aim to make the dialogue more concise and colloquial. I believe they should be approached as everyday conversations between two individuals, often attempting to challenge each other, or at the very least, provoke thought.
For instance, in the beginning of the dialogue with Meno, Socrates suggests that Meno should be intelligent, given that he received lessons from the renowned teacher, Gorgias. This is, of course, ironic. Socrates doesn’t genuinely believe that Gorgias or Meno are more intelligent than he is. It’s as if Socrates is saying, ‘Don’t you know it all? Didn’t you receive lessons from Gorgias, who claimed to have answers to everything?’
This is how Socrates encourages Meno to present his best ideas and defend them against the Socratic method of dialogue. The Socratic method is designed to guide his interlocutors from specific examples to more general concepts, often by making ‘good’ synonymous with ‘excellent,’ among other techniques. Plato and Socrates developed many theories throughout their philosophical journey.
Here is the link to the MIT version of Socrates’ dialogue with Meno:
The Internet Classics Archive | Meno by Plato
Meno by Plato, part of the Internet Classics Archive
·Writer for Original Philosophy
M.A. in Philosophy. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and a King Kong graphic novel got me into science fiction when I was a kid. alexand3r.bird@gmail.com