Opening page…
How do you find the unknown?
How do you look for something when you don't know what it is?
Searching seems to require knowing what to look for, yet discovery means finding what you did not know.
Your answer
Nearby questions
- Fluent and emptyIf no one can tell the difference, does it matter whether you really understand?
- Trusting what you can't checkShould you trust experts?
- What if this is the dream?How do you know any of this is real?
- What makes a good question?
- When your equal disagreesShould disagreement change your mind?
Read alongside it1
ReadingMeno's paradoxMeno: And how will you inquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know? What will you put forth as the subject of inquiry? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know? Socrates: I know, Meno, what you mean… You argue that a man cannot inquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to inquire; and if not, he cannot.
Meno: And how will you inquire, Socrates, into that which you do not know? What will you put forth as the subject of inquiry? And if you find what you want, how will you ever know that this is the thing which you did not know? Socrates: I know, Meno, what you mean… You argue that a man cannot inquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to inquire; and if not, he cannot.