Wisdom is analogous to craft knowledge: it is knowledge of how to use other goods — health, wealth, virtue — so that they are beneficial.

In support of the idea that if one knows what happiness is, one will pursue it, Socrates argues, in the Euthydemus, that wisdom is necessary and sufficient for happiness. While most of this dialogue is given over to Euthydemus’ and Dionysiodorus’ eristic display, there are two Socratic interludes. In the first of these – in a passage that has a parallel in Meno (88a ff) – Socrates helps the young Cleinias to see that wisdom is a kind of knowledge that infallibly brings happiness. He uses an anal