Clarity about what it means to be human constitutes not only the highest political and therapeutic vision, but also the height of practical reason. This is because it is from conceptions of human nature that access to all social resources flows. Aristotle argued that humans become aware of their political ideals only through their understanding of shared human nature. Taking his lead, Epicurus and the Hellenistic philosophers developed the idea that both philosophy (knowledge) and politics were medicine (i.e., healing, therapy) carried on by other means (Nussbaum 1994). At some point, everything human has philosophical and political implications, but, as Western philosophers have known at least since Aristotle, in order even to see these implications it is necessary first to have knowledge of human nature – otherwise, what would the implications be for? For Aristotle and the Hellenistic philosophers, knowledge of human nature could only lead to eudaimonia – i.e., “human flourishing.”