According to Socrates, virtue was a sort of knowledge. The wise man will act virtuously, since he will see it as the right thing to do. But the ignorant man can not avoid vice. The Stoic position held that a sage will possess all the virtues in their fullness. Aristo had argued that there is really only one virtue differentiated as somehow disposed in relation to something. This seemed to be too much like the Megarian position. Chrysippus thus came to see the virtues as distinct bodies, inseparable from each other somehow disposed in themselves and not in relation to something. Thus the need for the third category. Neoplatonic critique
Plotinus criticized both Aristotle's Categories and those of the Stoics. His student Porphyry however defended Aristotle's scheme.
According to Socrates, virtue was a sort of knowledge. The wise man will act virtuously, since he will see it as the right thing to do. But the ignorant man can not avoid vice. The Stoic position held that a sage will possess all the virtues in their fullness. Aristo had argued that there is really only one virtue differentiated as somehow disposed in relation to something. This seemed to be too much like the Megarian position. Chrysippus thus came to see the virtues as distinct bodies, inseparable from each other somehow disposed in themselves and not in relation to something. Thus the need for the third category. Neoplatonic critique, Plotinus, criticized both Aristotle's Categories and those of the Stoics. His student Porphyry however defended Aristotle's scheme.