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Socrates, as portrayed in Plato's early dialogues, held that virtue is a single thing (moral goodness in effect), that it consists in knowledge, and that "no one voluntarily does wrong, but that all who do wrong do so against their will'.¹ To do wrong is to act out of ignorance. Again, he says that "no one voluntarily pursues bad things, or what he thinks to be bad. To prefer bad things to good is not in human nature' (">Protagoras 359c-d). To act badly, therefore, is to be misguided and ignorant. Socrates thus denies the possibility of incontinence or weakness of will (akrasia), that someone could know what to do to achieve good, but would choose to act badly. The motivation for action lies entirely in one's knowledge or beliefs. The difference between good people and bad in this case is not a matter of will, but of belief. Wrongdoers act as they do because they have false beliefs about values.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137030979_7

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