An important quote from Socrates is sometimes translated along the lines: “There is only one good, wisdom, and one evil, ignorance.” In those words, it sounds absurd. But that translation is also woefully inadequate: Socrates is describing concepts that are elusive in English. So let’s examine his original words:

Ancient Greek: «Ἕν μόνον ᾰ̓γᾰθόν εἶναι, τὴν ἐπιστήμην, καὶ ἓν μόνον κακόν, τὴν ᾰ̓μᾰθῐ́ᾱν.»
Romanized: «Hén mónon ăgăthón eînai, tḕn epistḗmēn, kaí hén mónon kakón, tḕn ămăthĭ́ān.»
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 Ancient Greek words are crucial to understanding this quote:

• The word ἐπιστήμη⁽¹⁾ can mean science, knowledge, or wisdom. Encompassing these all as learning not only seems fair to me but, I think, strengthens Socrates’ point.
• Translating ᾰ̓μᾰθῐ́ᾱ⁽²⁾ as ignorance oversimplifies its full meaning: wilful ignorance. It’s derived from words for not learning, which is therefore my literal translation of it.
  • The Ancient Greeks contrasted this with ᾰ̓́γνοιᾰ,⁽³⁾ from words for not knowing. It is “innocent” ignorance: we are all born knowing nothing, and not knowing is curable in anyone who wants 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 ᾰ̓́γνοιᾰ, only ᾰ̓μᾰθῐ́ᾱ, a distinction too easily lost in English. I thus modestly propose adopting the words amathia and agnoia into English. The word ignorance carries an implicit moral judgement that is undeserved in cases of agnoia, and it does not even diagnose the source of the problem in either case. The Greek terms carry neither of these limitations. Sloppy language encourages sloppy thinking, and we cannot afford to be sloppy when we address problems as severe as amathia. The discrepancy is too important.

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Brief Acknowledgements

This post from CUNY philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci elaborates further (and undoubtedly influenced my interpretation to some extent).

I’m also oddly indebted to the German black metal band Nyktalgia: their song “Schemes Amathia” inspired me to look up this unfamiliar word. I think it’s meant to mean something like “[Forms/States] of Willful Ignorance”, but Greek doesn’t decline that way;⁽⁵⁾ it should be «Σχήμᾰτᾰ ᾰ̓μᾰθῐ́ᾱς» (romanized: «Skhḗmătă ămăthĭ́ās»; further Latinized: “Schemata amathias”). I can’t find the lyrics anywhere, though, so I’ll likely never know for sure.

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