  The philosophers are initially distinguished from non-philosophers  because they answer questions like ‘What is beautiful?’  by identifying the imperceptible property (form) of beauty instead of  some perceptible property or particulars (474b–480a). Socrates does not  name any philosophers who can knowledgeably answer questions like  that. In fact, his account of how philosophers would be educated in  the ideal city suggests that the ability to give knowledgeable  answers requires an enormous amount of (largely mathematical)  learning in advance of the questions themselves (521b–540a). How  would this mathematical learning and knowledge of forms affect one’s  motivations?