What conditions does Socrates expect a good definition to meet? Is he right to impose them?
Socrates' conditions for a good definition are to an extent ambiguous because in general they are implied rather than stated. After clarifying Socrates' account of the conditions he implies in the Meno, attempting to make the exposition fair and charitable, I shall argue that his key assumptions are that (1) one must know the definition of a concept in order to know any properties of the concept, (2) the concept he is defining must be univocal, (3) the property that a concept denotes must exist in reality and (4) the concept must be capable of being analysed into constituent parts. The conditions are thus that the definition must be compatible with these assumptions: a definition, therefore, must (i) allow us to know any properties of the concept, (ii) be univocal (iii) pick out something existent and (iv) analyse the concept into constituent parts. I shall focus on these assumptions, in the main in relation to the ethical concepts which Socrates wishes to analyse, and argue that none of his assumptions are self evident. The first assumption is reasonable only given a very strong conception of knowledge, the second is challenged powerfully by Wittgenstein, the third is challenged by subjectivism, the fourth by Moore. I shall argue that, though these do not necessarily spell the end for Socratic definition, they render it unpalatable.
I shall use some terms in a technical fashion: by concept, I refer to 'anything definable' which is, of course, generally a word or a group of words. By institutional concept, I mean a concept which refers to something that is not independent of human existence. By a noumenal concept, I mean a concept which is independent of human existence. By a basic concept, I mean one which cannot be analysed into constituent parts. In addition, I will use the name 'Socrates' to refer both to what is most likely Plato repeating what Socrates' views and Plato giving his own views through the character of Socrates in order to avoid the debate of how much of the dialogue is Socrates' views and how much is Plato's. These are all purely a case of nomenclature.