The objectives of this book are to provide a new translation of Plato's
M eno together with a series of studies on its philcisophical argument
in the light of recent secondary literature. My translation is based
mainly on the Oxford Classical Text, 1. Burnet's Platonis Opera (Oxford
Clarendon Press 1900) Vol. III. In conjunction with this I have made
extensive use of R.S. Bluck's Plato's Meno (Cam- bridge University
Press, 1964). At critical places in the dialogue I have also consulted
A. Croiset's Gorgias, Menon (Bude text). My debt o two other sources
will be clearly in evidence. They are E.S. Thompson's Plato's Meno
(London, MacMillan 1901), and St. George Stock's The Meno of Plato
(Oxford Clarendon Press, 1894). One of the greatest difficulties facing
a translator is to achieve a balance between accuracy and elegance.
Literal translations are more likely to be accurate, but, alas, they
also tend to be duller. Free translations run into the opposite danger
of paying for elegance and liveliness with the coin of inaccuracy.
Another hurdle, for a translator of a Platonic dialogue, is posed by the
challenge to maintain the conversational pattern and fast- moving
character of the discussion. This is easier where the exchang s are
short, but much more difficult where Socrates gets somewhat long-winded.