In the Meno, Socrates presses Meno, who has offered a list of virtues, to say what virtue is, and first practises the demand on “figure”. He asks for the “simile in multis”, the one thing in many, in Jowett’s rendering of the question. The dialogue begins with the question whether virtue can be taught. It sits under “One in many” as the plainest statement of what a definition seeks.
Read in contextTo what then do we give the name of figure? Try and answer. Suppose that when a person asked you this question either about figure or colour, you were to reply, Man, I do not understand what you want, or know what you are saying; he would look rather astonished and say: Do you not understand that I am looking for the ‘simile in multis’? And then he might put the question in another form: Meno, he might say, what is that ‘simile in multis’ which you call figure, and which includes not only round and straight figures, but all? Could you not answer that question, Meno? I wish that you would try; the attempt will be good practice with a view to the answer about virtue.