Buddhist and Platonic ethics share a perspective which sets them apart from familiar moral theories, including the 'virtue ethics' inspired by ancient Greek. For Plato as for the Indian Buddhists, our primary moral task is to transform ourselves radically—and for each the primary mechanism for doing so is knowing reality. Moreover, unlike Aristotle, this knowledge which transforms us not, in the first instance, knowledge of what to do, but rather knowledge of impersonal reality. Orienting ourselves towards knowing an impersonal reality reconfigures our orientation away from the human world, enabling both Buddhism and Platonism to offer radical critique of our ordinary lives and everyday measures of good and bad--although the particular critiques offered may differ.