ABSTRACT
In a philosophy orientated uniquely to performance and power, egoism becomes a necessity. With the great names in Greek philosophy, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Attica the motherland came to prominence. The philosophical inquiry into the why and the wherefore of things, and especially moral value or virtue, shaped Socrates' very existence. In his philosophical inquiry, two things were particularly characteristic: his maieutics and his irony. Although Socrates is important first and foremost for his contribution to the theory of value, he made another very significant contribution to purely theoretical philosophy with an achievement which almost ranks as an invention: his method of arriving at concepts. Plato's philosophy also concerned daily life, because it was aimed at forming righteous men and a righteous State; but it set about this with a consciously sophisticated and ingenious theory, the famous doctrine of the Platonic ideas.
