Ethics is the basic principle of purification

Ethics is the basic principle of purification. Unless one…knows what is moral and what is immoral… Of course, in this material world everything is immoral, but still we have to distinguish good and bad. That is called regulative principle. Simply by following the regulative principle, if he does not reach the ultimate goal of spiritual life, so that is also not wanted. The real aim is to come to the spiritual platform and become free from the influence of these laws of material nature.

Dialectic Spiritualism: A Vedic View of Western Philosophy(Prabhupada Books, 1985), conversation about Socrates