[BLANK_AUDIO] One final highlight from this last section of the Meno, and we're done. Virtue is mindfulness. That's what the last video said, but that was just a hypothesis. Socrates immediately suggests a problem. If virtue were knowledge, then, presumably, there would be teachers of it. But looking around the place, there don't actually seem to be. The high point here, maybe, is the bit that really annoys Anytus. There are lots of virtuous men in Athens, right? Great successful men in public affairs, right? But look at their sons. Here is a great man who spared no expense. To teach his son everything. Fighting, fancy horseback riding. The works. But this son, well, he went bad. Everyone says so. Anytus thinks Socrates is going out of his way to be insulting to prominent citizens, making his list like he does. But what is Socrates really getting at? Consider an analogy. Suppose you want to make money on the stock market. That's hard, you object. But consider this strategy, those who can't do, teach. Am I right? So, I want you to teach up a storm. Start not one investment advice newsletter, but, oh, say 16. Give them impressive titles like, Virtuous Investments in Fundamentals, or just, the Pericles Fund. Ooh, that sounds good. Make it look all pro, nice graphics, nice font, the works. Okay. Split your 16 in half, eight and eight. Half your newsletters predict, market goes up this quarter. The other half. The market goes down. Inevitably, it either goes up or down. So, one of your two stacks turns out to be right. Keep that stack, toss the other. Repeat procedure for the next quarter, splitting your eight previous winners into four and four. Again, half are going to be right. Split again. Discard losers, keep winners. After a year, one of your 16 will have run the gauntlet and emerged the clear winner. A newsletter that has correctly predicted the overall movements of the market. For four quarters running. That's impressive. The Pericles Fund. Or Virtuous Investment in Fundamentals. From the outside, what does it look like? Looks like someone really knows about the market. But what do we actually have? Luck, right? Not knowledge. Someone that's been buying this newsletter all year, and investing on this basis, will have had true beliefs about the market, based on the newsletter. Made money, but they never had knowledge, because the newsletter isn't based on knowledge. As Socrates says in this section of the dialogue, true belief is just as good as knowledge, for as long as it sticks around. But you can't expect it to stick around. It's like those statues of Daedalus that run away if not tied down. Only we need to tie this stuff down with reasons. Unless the author of the Pericles Fund, had reasons why the market is going to go up or down - and by hypothesis, that isn't the case - it isn't truly virtuous investment advice is it? Now think again about those fathers who were virtuous but couldn't teach their sons virtue. What does that suggest? They, the fathers, enjoyed considerable success by conventional standards. Got rich. Won battles. Gave speeches about virtue. [SOUND] At which people clapped. But maybe they didn't know what they were doing. Otherwise, they would have told their sons something that kept them from turning out to be a bunch of monkeys. By the law of averages, there's always going to be a Pericles. That is, someone who racks up a whole run of successes. Just like there's always going to be a Pericles Fund, maybe. Conclusion, this suggests that we're liable to be subject to a lot of illusion about the presence of personal virtue in our personal environments. Think about the mechanics of my little newsletter scam. And I think the conclusion of the final section of the Meno will make some sense to you. Oh, and one last, last point. I started last lesson by pointing out that the original readers of Plato's dialogues would have had an immediate response to the title of this one. Oh, [LAUGH], that jerk, Meno! Well, I checked, and I'm happy to report that the Wikipedia entry for Meno, the guy, is totally reliable, and comprehensive. Pretty much all we know on the subject. I couldn't find any errors in it. I checked it against the best scholarly source I could find. And here's the thing. Plato couldn't have planned for this, so I can't give him credit. But it's perfect. There's a hole in our knowledge about how Meno's life ultimately turned out. We're pretty sure about this much. Soon after the time of this dialogue, Meno saw service as a mercenary general. Fighting for pay in a Persian civil war. Perfect job for Meno. Defending stuff he doesn't believe in, for money. And boy, was he one shifty, traitorous mercenary, particularly if the worst stories are to be believed. There are two possibilities, either his low down, snakelike bad behavior and total lack of loyalty, allowed him to save his skin, because he could shed any skin. Thank you Gorgias, for that valuable training in insincerity. As I was saying, either he was literally the only Greek mercenary to get out of that bad situation alive because he betrayed his way out. Or, his bad behavior and total lack of loyalty were so conspicuous, that while all the other Greeks were only put to death, Meno was kept alive and tortured to death over a period of a year. Ouch. I said this is perfect. Why? Because it's a perfect symbol for a topic that isn't often discussed. Virtue under uncertainty. If virtue means success, is it virtuous to be a total mercenary, like Meno apparently was? Especially if the worst stories are to be believed. Well, it is imaginable that this is quite literally the best of all possible strategies. It might be literally the only way to get out alive. And, it is imaginable that this is quite literally the worst of all possible strategies. It might be literally the way to get, suffering the most painful of all possible fates. Virtue. It works. Until it doesn't, maybe. Of course, there's a pretty good one sentence comeback. If you're looking for a formula for success in life that is immune to the effects of chance, well, good look with that, buddy. At any rate, maybe we're better off stepping back from these individual portraits of virtue, trying to take in the whole political social picture. Next week, next lesson. Republic. Book one. [BLANK_AUDIO]
