When a person is at the intelligence stage, they are dealing with the Forms directly, seeing the true object in its due eternal essence (Price 61). When at this stage, the person has now gained the ability to be "moral", thus living the "good" life. This brings the ability to balance the soul's will, between rationality and appetite. This idea of morality, as well as the interconnectedness of everything, is described in the "Allegory of the Cave". .
There are three ways to go about knowing forms. The first is recollection, which is discovering forms through experiences in your past lives (relates to reincarnation), the Socratic dialectic method through exposing contradictions and solidifying truths by means of conversation. The last being love, which can bring us from beauty in flesh to thought, to essence. .
In respect to ethics, as well as politics, if something was functioning properly, such as the soul or civilization, they were considered virtuous. With that in mind, the ideal state, according to Plato would be one that is virtuous, in regards to its citizens and the state itself. In the Republic, the discussion sheds light into the belief that without the, reason, will, and appetite of the citizens being in balance, the citizen can not be harmonious. These ideas were correlated with the three largest parts of the human body, the head, the chest, and the abdomen. Also being correlated with the three parts of the human body is the state. From top to bottom the state is organized into three classes, the ruler, the guardians, and the craftsman. These classes must work together to have success, which is termed as justice.
Plato says that a state exists because people are not self-sufficient. This is his basis for the argument of having a division of labor. With the division of labor, (which follows the top to bottom supremacy of the body diagram of a state), the citizens of the state function for the happiness of the individual, and for the good of the state as a whole.
