ven if this is essentially an uncovering of knowledge the individual possesses from previous incarnations.
Socrates' method on being asked about a particular object (usually a virtue) is to deny that he has any knowledge of the object of inquiry and then to prompt the other to explain what he knows about that object. Those with whom he speaks inevitably have opinions or beliefs about the object in question. As the interlocutor supplies his answers (his opinions and beliefs) Socrates leads him, by careful questioning, to see that he does not, in fact, have the knowledge of the object that he thought he possessed. Thus Socrates invariably demonstrates to the other party that, like Socrates, he too does not know what the virtue is. This leaves the other man, as Meno says, feeling like he has been stung and numbed by the hidden barb of a sting-ray (80a). But in Meno's case the interlocutor begins to question the whole process of inquiry in which they are engaged. Meno poses a paradox for Socrates which presents a genuine puzzle. As Meno asks,
[H]ow will you look for something when you don't in the least know what it is? How on earth are you going to set up something you don't know as the object of your search? To put i
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