With Socrates Optimism begins, an optimism no longer artistic, with teleology and faith in the good god; faith in the enlightened good man. Dissolution of the instincts, Socrates breaks with the hitherto prevailing knowledge and culture; he intends returning to the old citizen-virtue and to the State.
Plato dissociates himself from the State, when he observes that the State has become identical with the new Culture.
The Socratic scepticism is a weapon against the hitherto prevailing culture and knowledge.