德性的学习何以可能——基于对柏拉图《美诺》的解读

Is It Possible to Learn Virtue?On Plato’s Meno

《美诺》是一部关于德性可教问题的教育戏剧。美诺虽善记忆其心灵却极其懒于思考并过于渴慕权势,其灵魂狭隘且傲慢。他执迷于寻找德性教师来传授自己德性,却始终不愿在苏格拉底的鼓励下反思自己对德性的错误理解。此教育故事亦表明鉴于人的有限性,有完全智慧进而可以传授德性的完美之人是不存在的,因此德性理论上虽可教却在现实中不可教。不过个体却可以通过坚定地去反思和探究关于德性的智慧获得更多真实的道德意见,以此来更加靠近德性本身,德性的不教而学亦由此而来。

Plato’s Meno is an educational drama about the teaching of virtue.Meno has good memory,but he is extremely lazy,unwilling to think,thirsty for power,and his soul is narrow and arrogant.He is obsessed with finding teachers to teach virtue for him,but he is always reluctant to reflect on his misunderstanding of virtue under the encouragement of Socrates.This educational story shows the limitation of human wisdom,as there is no perfect person who has complete wisdom and can teach virtue.Therefore,although virtue can be taught in theory,it cannot be taught in reality.However,man can obtain more true moral opinions by reflecting and exploring the wisdom of virtue continually,so as to get closer to the virtue itself,and this is the meaning of “learning of virtue without teaching”.