  The latter, Socratic link can be developed further. The Dialectical school is listed by Diogenes Laertius (1.18) as one of the ‘ethical’ sects—surprisingly, given that no ethical doctrines or interests are recorded for any of its known members. The explanation may lie in a well-known passage in Plato’s Apology (38a), where Socrates remarks that ‘The greatest good for man is to hold discussions every day about virtue and about the other things about which you hear me conversing [dialegomenou, cognate with ‘dialectic’] and examining myself and others. And the unexamined life is not worth living for man…’ The Dialecticians may have concluded, following Socrates, that the development and exercise of dialectical skills are themselves the supreme fulfilment of the human self. If so, it becomes that much easier to accept that Diodorus and his colleagues gave their philosophy a Socratic pedigree.