 The second conversation between Socrates and Clinias treats wisdom as a  techne   and explores the subordination of one techne to another, as the art of the general (winning battles) is subordinate to the art of politics (making use of victories). The supreme techne he calls kingly or royal, and this is the techne that guides the use of all others (291c), but this line of inquiry founders on a question that appears unanswerable: What is the specific knowledge that is given by the kingly techne? A techne is supposed to have a well-defined subject matter, but the kingly techne, which requires general wisdom, would oversee all subject matter and therefore would seem to have no subject matter proper to itself. Perhaps Socrates thinks the subject of this techne is good and evil, or perhaps virtue, but he does not say either, nor does he explain how these could be the subjects of a  techne.  Because a techne is, by definition, teachable, Socrates would have to establish that such knowledge can be taught, but as we see from the  Protagoras  Socrates has grave doubts on this score.