The state of the discussion as it stands now, is represented by two hypothetical syllogisms, as follows: 1. If virtue is knowledge, it is teachable: But virtue is knowledge: Therefore virtue is teachable. 2. If virtue is knowledge, it is teachable: But virtue is not teachable: Therefore virtue is not knowledge. The premisses of each of these two syllogisms contradict the conclusion of the other. Both cannot be true. If virtue is not acquired by teaching and does not come by nature, how are there any virtuous men? [Side-note: Sokrates modifies his premisses--knowledge is not the only thing which guides to good results--right opinion will do the same.] Sokrates continues his argument: The second premiss of the first syllogism--that virtue is knowledge--is true, but not the whole truth. In proving it we assumed that there was nothing except knowledge which guided us to useful and profitable consequences. But this assumption will not hold. There is something else besides knowledge, which also guides us to the same useful results. That something is _right opinion_, which is quite different from knowledge. The man who holds right opinions is just as profitable to us, and guides us quite as well to right actions, as if he knew. Right opinions, so long as they stay in the mind, are as good as knowledge, for the purpose of guidance in practice. But the difference is, that they are evanescent and will not stay in the mind: while knowledge is permanent and ineffaceable. They are exalted into knowledge, when bound in the mind by a chain of causal reasoning:[24] that is, by the process of reminiscence, before described. [Footnote 24: Plato, Menon, pp. 97 E--98 A. [Greek: kai\ ga\r ai( do/xai ai( a)lêthei=s, o(/son me\n a)\n chro/non parame/nôsin, kalo/n ti chrê=ma kai\ pa/nta ta)gatha\ e)rga/zontai; polu\n de\ chro/non ou)k e)the/lousi parame/nein, a)lla\ drapeteu/ousin e)k tê=s psuchê=s tou= a)nthrô/pou. ô(/ste ou) pollou= a)/xiai/ ei)sin, _e(/ôs a)\n tis au)ta\s dê/sê| ai)ti/as logismô=|_; tou=to d' e)sti\n _a)na/mnêsis_, ô(s e)n toi=s pro/sthen ê(mi=n ô(molo/gêtai.]] [Side-note: Right opinion cannot be relied on for staying in the mind, and can never give rational explanations, nor teach others--good practical statesmen receive right opinion by inspiration from the Gods.]