When Socrates has established as rulers of the best political order those who are legitimately lovers of learning and who are not counterfeit philosophers, and when he has declared them worthy to be spectators of the universals – and the affairs which are governed by them will come to resemble those universals – he postulates that most of all they will understand this very last object of learning. Since his companions have asked for a discussion from him as to what this means, and what the final one of all the objects of learning hints at,18 he says that they have already heard this many times before, namely that this is the Good, which all things desire. And it is not possible to say where one should turn one’s thinking (dianoia),19 if one should neglect this axiom. He announces that he will show what exactly the good is.