Plato And Socrates: Meaning And Importance Of Knowledge

Plato wrote a lot of important philosophical works during his lifetime, but some of the most important ones are his works involving Socrates. With these works, Plato touched upon important beliefs that seem clear-cut to us but are much more complicated than believed. One of these beliefs involves the meaning and importance of knowledge. Plato writes to describe knowledge in his works Protagoras, Euthydemus, and Meno. There are three points he brings up involving proper knowledge: the importance of good teaching, the necessity of knowledge to do good in the world, and how virtue is a type of knowledge. In the end, I will explain why I agree with the argument of knowledge that Plato has raised in these three points. To begin, the first important aspect of knowledge is the importance of good teaching. Say that a student walks into a math classroom, and the teacher begins to teach. The teacher says 2 + 2 is 5: most people know this is not correct due to the proper knowledge they have gained during their lives, but if this student had never had a math class before, how would they know? The answer is they would not, and that is why good teaching is important for knowledge. Plato brings this up in Protagoras, a story where a younger man named Hippocrates wants to go see a sophist named Protagoras, but he has no idea what exactly a sophist does and whether Protagoras speaks with wisdom or not. Socrates warns Hippocrates by saying, “You put down your money and take the teaching away