Socrates makes one last attempt to have Hippias realize that ability is only a means and not a good end in itself. He posits justice as an ability. Were justice really an ability, we would need to regard it as an ability with necessarily good ends (were it to have bad ends, it would not be justice); but Hippias regards justice itself, being an ability, as good in itself, and for him this ability, like all others, is then free to have bad ends.