Cultural advancement happens through conflict; likewise, the history of scientific development and the development of dialectic in philosophy and ultimately of logic ('Socrates and Tragedy'); the best friendship is not an agreement but antagonism: 'let us be enemies too, my friends!', and similarly a good enemy is an asset; man and woman are said to be locked in antagonism; likewise the masculine and feminine, by means of which agon is symbolised erotically; Wisdom 'loves only a warrior' is a metaphorical evocation of agon in philosophical overcoming. The instinct for struggle is not always productive, however, and must be had or discharged in a way that does not threaten. This was the role of a state; in other words, the proper function of the state is to harness the agon.