Socrates asks precisely how it is possible that, if one judges action A to be the best course of action, why one would do anything other than A. Plato held the idea that training in the sciences and metaphysics were a necessary prerequisite for a full understanding of an agent's good.

What we need, in order to live well, is a proper appreciation of the way in which such goods as friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor and wealth fit together as a whole. In order to apply that general understanding to particular cases, we must acqure, through proper upbringing and habits, the ability to see, on each occasion, which course of action is best supported by reasons.

For

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