Can The Protagoras: Can Virtue Be Taught?

Can virtue be taught? This is the main question discussed and argued over by Plato in the Protagoras and in the last section of the Meno. In these readings Plato gives different arguments that favor both sides positively and negatively. In the evidence I found in analyzing the Protagoras and the end of the Meno one thing was clear. The answer to this question according to the arguments seen in the readings tended to lean towards the negative. By negative I mean that Plato seems to believe that virtue cannot be taught. At least, not in the way this question was worded. I personally believe that virtue can be taught to an extent and that we should be asking more questions like can virtue be learned? In the Protagoras reading, Socrates tells a story about his
The main topic of discussion in this reading was virtue. Protagoras claims that he can make Hippocrates a better man every day if he becomes his apprentice. Socrates questions this statement by asking him how? Protagoras answers by saying that he can teach Hippocrates good judgment in both personal and civic affairs. He is stating that he can teach a man to be virtuous. Socrates doesn’t believe that this is possible as he starts questioning him. “The truth is, Protagoras, I have never thought that could be taught, but when you say it can be, I cant very well doubt it.” (Protagoras 319b) This is when Socrates question arises can virtue be taught? Socrates argues that virtue is not something that is taught as he explained that Athens allows all citizens to participate in political decisions thus implying that the virtue is not a skill that is learned like shipbuilding or construction. He reasons that nobody will blast anyone in citizens participating in assembly, as he believes that people think that virtue can’t be taught like shipbuilding. Socrates believes that people can’t transmit to other “virtues that they