The basic philosophical foundation that supports the Socratic philosophy of education Socrates, in The Republic, begins his query by asking how is it best to live one"s life? He suggests the best life is lived in such a fashion that is conducive to creating a just society. Such a society is the one designed that is most conducive to justice, and therefore to happiness, as opposed to pleasure. Remember that happiness for the Greeks was not a matter of individual self-fulfillment. Rather, Socrates considered happiness as fulfilling one"s most fitting vocational role in society. Socrates defined a society that is best in autocratic terms-a cobbler should not rule, and a potential ruler or philosopher should not make shoes, because this is antithetical to their natural abilities and fitness. .

             But although Socrates advocated oligarchy as the fittest system of governance, he did not advocate aristocracy. In one of his earlier dialogues, called the "Meno," Socrates is shown leading a slave boy through mathematical proofs. With correct prompting the boy is thus able to recover innate knowledge about the world. Thus Socrates saw intellectual gifts as intrinsic to the human mind and not necessarily based on the ability of the tutor. This is why Socrates did not charge for his teachings, unlike the Sophists. (Kemerling, 2002,"Socrates," The Philosophy Pages).

             But to accept the Socratic doctrine one must also believe that potential intellectual abilities are not democratically bestowed upon individuals as suggested by the Sophists, who aimed to teach all people to rhetorically please the people in the law courts and in the political sphere, by using clever phrases. Socrates believed that there was an inherent paradox in acquring knowledge "the most fundamental questions about our own nature and function," are actually unaswerable and undemonstratable by common rhetorical devices, therefore "it seems impossible for us to learn anything.