An important Socrates quote is sometimes translated along the lines: There is only one good, wisdom, and one evil, ignorance. That may sound absurd, but it’s a woefully inadequate translation: Socrates is describing concepts that are elusive in English. So let’s examine his original words:

Attic Greek: «Ἕν μόνον ἀγαθόν εἶναι, τὴν ἐπιστήμην, καί ἓν μόνον κακόν, τὴν ἀμαθίᾱν.»
Romanized: «Hén mónon agathón eînai, tḕn epistḗmēn, kaí hén mónon kakón, tḕn amathíān.»
Literally: There is only one good, learning, and there is only one evil, not learning.
Figuratively: Learning is the only good, and refusal to learn the only evil.

A few Greek words are crucial to understanding this quote:

• The word ἐπιστήμη⁽¹⁾ can mean science, knowledge, or wisdom. Encapsulating these all as learning not only seems fair to me but, I think, strengthens Socrates’ point.
• Translating ἀμαθίᾱ⁽²⁾ as ignorance oversimplifies its full meaning: wilful ignorance. It’s derived from words for not learning, which is thus my literal translation of it.
  • The Ancient Greeks contrasted this with ἄγνοια,⁽³⁾ or not knowing. This is “innocent” ignorance: we’re all born knowing nothing, and not knowing is curable in those who want to learn.
  • To put it another way: “You can lead a horse to knowledge, but you can’t make it think.”⁽⁴⁾

Socrates is not condemning ἄγνοια, only ἀμαθίᾱ, a distinction too easily lost in English. I thus modestly propose adding amathia, amathic, agnoia, and agnoic to our language. The word ignorance holds ethical connotations that the agnoic don’t deserve, and it fails to diagnose the source of the problem for either amathia or agnoia. The Greek terms carry neither limitation. Sloppy language encourages sloppy thinking, and we can’t afford to be sloppy in addressing problems as severe as amathia. The discrepancy is too important.

Brief Acknowledgements

CUNY philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci ⟨en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Pigliucci⟩ has covered this topic in much greater depth ⟨web.archive.org/web/20250814200416/https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/one-crucial-word⟩; his interpretation has undoubtedly been a massive influence on mine.

I’m also oddly indebted to the German black metal band Nyktalgia: their song “Schemes Amathia” inspired me to look up amathia. I suspect they meant the title to be Attic Greek⁽⁵⁾ for either:

1. States of Amathia: “Schemata amathias” (Greek: «Σχήματα ἀμαθίᾱς», «Skhḗmata amathíās»).
2. “Amathia of Nature”: “Schematos amathia” (Greek: «Σχήματος ἀμαθία», «Skhḗmatos amathíā»).

I can’t find the lyrics anywhere, though, so I’ll likely never know for sure. (It doesn’t help that σχῆμα is one of Attic Greek’s many words with over a dozen meanings.)

Lastly, I wish to acknowledge Wiktionary ⟨en.wiktionary.org⟩, Λογεῖον (Logeîon) ⟨logeion.uchicago.edu⟩, and the Liddell, Scott, Jones wiki ⟨lsj.gr⟩: I’d know far less Greek without them.

—Aaron Freed
—Tallahassee, FL
—2025-03-25 (rev. 2025-05-02 & 2026-10-10)