Conditions of Possibility of Formation in Meno: A Retrospective Reading

Abstract

The words ‘education’ and ‘formation’ are close, but different in meaning. Education responds to a specific disciplinary knowledge within a structure or system of its own, while formation contributes to the human from domains that are not necessarily systematic. This article has as its starting point the hypothesis that formation is an effect that can only be conceived a posteriori; this hypothesis will serve as an incentive to propose a reading of Plato’s Meno that succeeds to demonstrate some conditions of the dialogue that make possible the formative effect. First, some presuppositions will be exposed to understand the hypothesis; then, two conditions will be established that make the formative process possible: λόγος and mentoring (each of these conditions will have a division that will make them explicit); finally, it will be determined, by means of a chart, whether or not a formative effect has occurred on the characters of the dialogue.