timelets

“For the Ancients, not only was nature before all else good, but in no sense was a majority of humans called upon to decide between good and evil, between just and unjust, because the criteria which enabled those distinctions all stemmed from the natural order, which was both external to and superior to men. Broadly speaking, the good was what was in accord with the cosmic order, whether one willed it or not, and what was bad was what ran contrary to this order, whether one liked it or not. ”

-- Luc Ferry. “A Brief History of Thought.” (with reference to Cicero, On Moral Ends, III, 73).

Now Socrates makes a lot more sense to me.