ABSTRACT
In the Republic Forms are introduced to justify the claim that the <j>i\6ao(f)o<; (philosophos) should rule. The the serious-minded intellectual, differs from the journalist because he knows. Different opinions about matters of science, morals and politics, are not mere matters of opinion: they are capable of being true or false, correct or incorrect, right or wrong. The justification for entrusting all decision-making to meritocrats is that they will get the answers right. Forms are essential to the argument of the Republic because they underwrite moral arguments. They are what make knowledge possible, what enable us to know the difference between right and wrong, and what prove Thrasymachus wrong, if he maintains that StKatoavi r^j, morality, is simply the interest of the stronger.
