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"Can you seek the answer to this question? (Meno in India)"

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 06:09 authored by Jonardon Ganeri, Amber Carpenter
Plato articulates a deep perplexity about inquiry in 'Meno's Paradox'-the claim that one can inquire neither into what one knows, nor into what one does not know. Although some commentators have wrestled with the paradox itself, many suppose that the paradox of inquiry is special to Plato, arising from peculiarities of the Socratic elenchus or of Platonic epistemology. But there is nothing peculiarly Platonic in this puzzle. For it arises, too, in classical Indian philosophical discussions, where it is formulated with great clarity, and analysed in a way that casts it in a new light. We present three treatments of the puzzle in Indian philosophy, as a way of refining and sharpening our understanding of the paradox, before turning to the most radical of the Indian philosophers to tackle it. The Indian philosophers who are optimistic that the paradox can be resolved appeal to the existence of prior beliefs, and to the resources embedded in language to explain how we can investigate, and so move from ignorance to knowledge. Highlighting this structural feature of inquiry, however, allows the pessimist philosopher to demonstrate that the paradox stands. The incoherence of inquiry is rooted in the very idea of aiming our desires at the unknown. Asking questions and giving answers rests on referential intentions targeting objects in a region of epistemic darkness, and so our 'inquiry sceptic' also finds structurally similar forms of incoherence in the pragmatics of interrogative discourse.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Australasian Journal of Philosophy

ISSN

0004-8402

Publisher

Routledge

Issue

4

Volume

88

Page range

571-594

Pages

24.0

Department affiliated with

  • Philosophy Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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