As seen in the writings of Plato regarding Socrates, which some will argue is a blending of the two philosophers’ ideas, one of the requirements for a virtuous man is that he must first know “his spiritual self as it really is, including all its shortcomings, strengths and potentialities” (Sahakian, Sahakian, 1966, p. 32). As Plato was a disciple of Socrates and the source of much of the information we have regarding much of what this man had to say, Socrates’ concept of virtue is relevant to an understanding of Plato’s views. According to Socrates, it is the man who does not know himself who cannot accurately judge his own capabilities and his own unique path to the greatest good based on the accurate use of his strengths and knowledge of his weaknesses. Socrates takes this another step by suggesting that knowledge of oneself will instruct from within regarding those things which are good (virtuous) and those things which are not. He suggests this by claiming that things that are good will make us feel happy inside while things that are bad will be immediately recognizable to the man who knows himself because these actions will cause “spiritual degradation and mental deterioration” (Sahakian, Sahakian, 1966, p. 33) that will be immediately apparent.

Socrates’ most famous student, Plato, pulled together the ideas of his mentor and Pythagoras to combine them with his own response to what he’d seen of the world to develop his Theory of Forms, in which the ultimate goal was to progress through the levels of reality to the highest level, also known as the greatest good. This is presented as the Allegory of the Cave in Book 7 of The Republic. As is seen in this allegory, Plato does not view reality as being the world of substance and things that we can see in everyday life but as something more abstract that can only be obtained through intellectual thought.