Extract

Plato insists throughout on the objectivity of values, and on the importance of morality in the individual's life. The ‘protreptic’ passage in the Euthydemus anticipates the Stoics by claiming that so-called ‘goods’ (health, wealth, and so on) are not really goods; the only good thing is the virtuous person's knowledge of how to use these things in accordance with morality. It is explicitly assumed that everyone pursues happiness, though prior to philosophical reflection we have little idea of what happiness is, so that most confuse it with worldly success; the choice of virtue is embodied in the worldly failure Socrates. In many of the Socratic dialogues, Socrates urges people to rethink their priorities, and to live more morally; he is sure that there is such a thing as virtue, though he never claims to have it. He further identifies virtue with the wisdom or understanding that is its basis, namely the unified grasp of principles which enables the virtuous to act rightly in a variety of situations, and to explain and justify their decisions and actions.