t is almost
a reflex of their modern identities to echo in their doctrines,
if not always to follow in their disciplines, those ancients who
taught that &quot;knowledge is virtue&quot;.  This means that to know the
truth about anything is to know how to act rightly in regard to
it, but more yet, to be compelled to act that way.  It is usually
understood that this maxim posits a relation between the otherwise
independent realms of knowledge and action, where knowledge resides
in domains of signs and ideas, a