We now come to one of the most well-known passages in the dialogue. In response to the stingray speech, which concerns the psychological effects of the elenchus, Socrates has just proposed that they jointly inquire into what they do not know. Meno's counter-response is to pose an epistemological challenge to the very possibility of inquiry and discovery. This challenge has become known as ‘Meno's paradox’. One thing that has made it seem so important is that it prompts Socrates to introduce the theory of recollection and, with it, the examination of the slave boy. The challenge has also attracted a good deal of scholarly interest because of the interpretative issues it poses. First, it has proved very difficult for scholars to agree on what the problem behind the ‘paradox’ actually is. Second, there is the question of whether Meno uses the challenge merely as a dodge to evade further cross-examination, or whether he is motivated by a serious philosophical concern.

In dealing with the first issue, it is very important to recognise that Plato structures this phase of the dialogue in two stages: first, he has Meno challenge Socrates with a posse of three questions (80d5–8); then Socrates reformulates the challenge into what he calls ‘the eristic argument’, a dilemma about the impossibility of inquiry (80e1–5). In what follows, I shall call the first ‘Meno's challenge’ and the second the ‘eristic dilemma’.