Meno's Acquisition Of Wealth Analysis

Virtue: The Acquiring of Wealth
Towards the beginning of the Meno dialogue, Meno discusses one definition of virtue as “the acquisition of gold and silver.” In simpler terms, Meno claims that the acquisition of wealth is known as virtue because it is a good thing. Socrates brings up the argument that acquisition of wealth cannot be virtue, even though It provides good things, if it isn’t accompanied by justice, moderation or piety in some form or another. This statement made by Socrates appeals to me the most because of each of the wills: Justice, Moderation and Piety. In today’s world, there are plenty of court cases in which the plaintiff(s) is trying to sue the defendant(s) for a certain amount of money. If the plaintiff wins the case, he or she would acquire that amount of money through the
This example relates to the dialogue because it is an example of acquiring wealth through the accompaniment of justice. It also appeals to me because I believe our government tries to carry out justice in each and every case to the best of its ability. Therefore, one can agree that acquiring wealth through this system of justice is a good thing or, virtue, just like Socrates had described. Let’s bring it to a local example. If one of your children were to accidentally break a neighbor’s window, wouldn’t you certainly feel the need to refund the neighbor for the damage? Whether or not the child who broke the window or the parent of that child refunded the neighbor, justice would still be carried out and the acquisition of wealth that the neighbor would receive would be seen as good. A problem I can see with this definition, however, relates back to our court system. In some cases, the defendant, in my true opinion, is sued for way too much money. The plaintiff has sued them for more money than in necessary and the defendant is not deserving of having so much money taken from them. The one example I can relate to this problem is the “McDonalds coffee.” Because