Disgraceful ignorance

Use in the book

At 118a Socrates names the state just isolated by the argument. This ignorance causes bad things and is the disgraceful amathia. He then asks when it is most harmful and shameful: when it concerns the greatest objects. Justice, the fine, the good, and advantage are supplied as those objects. The seriousness of the judgment depends both on false confidence and on the practical importance of the field.

At 118b the diagnosis becomes personal. Socrates says Alcibiades is living with the most extreme amathia, as the argument and Alcibiades himself accuse him. The language of “living with” gives the ignorance an intimate, persistent presence. It explains his rush into politics before education. Socrates nevertheless extends the condition to most current politicians and includes a qualification for a few possible exceptions. The passage targets a civic pattern as well as an individual.

The dialogue subsequently treats the condition as remediable. Alcibiades must not use the ignorance of others as an excuse for neglect; he must undertake care. At 127d–e recognition of his shameful state is met with encouragement because he is at an age suitable for correction. Calling the earlier condition stupidity should not obscure that educational possibility or invite contempt for someone simply because he lacks schooling.

The word's force is sharper than ordinary “not knowing,” but the sharpness arises through the diagnosis already established. A lexicon should not make every occurrence of ignorance equivalent to amathia or treat the label as proof independent of the argument.

Places to read

1. 117d–118a2The mistaken self-assessment is isolated and named reproachable amathia
2. 118b–118cThe diagnosis is applied to Alcibiades and most politicians
3. 127d–127eRecognition of a shameful condition opens the prospect of care

Translation in this edition

The edition retains Burnet's καί at 118a4: this ignorance causes bad things “and is” the disgraceful stupidity. Removing the conjunction would silently follow a conjecture reported but not printed. At 118b6 Burnet prints “most extreme” from B and Olympiodorus; T has “most shameful.”

ἀμαθία

Attested: ἡ ἐπονείδιστος ἀμαθία (hē eponeidistos amathia; 118a). At 118a: Reproachable lack of understanding, named after the ignorance that thinks it knows has been isolated. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀμαθία. See Disgraceful ignorance.

ἐπονείδιστος

Attested: ἐπονείδιστος (eponeidistos; 118a). Reproachable or disgraceful; it qualifies the unlearnedness that wrongly takes itself to be knowledge. Lexical identification: lemma: ἐπονείδιστος. See Disgraceful ignorance.

ἔσχατος

Attested: τῇ ἐσχάτῃ (tēi eschatēi; 118b). At 118b: Of the most extreme kind, qualifying the amathia with which Alcibiades is said to live. Lexical identification: lemma: ἔσχατος. See Disgraceful ignorance.

πάθος

Attested: πάθος (pathos; 118b). At 118b: The troubling condition diagnosed as extreme amathia, something Alcibiades has undergone and now must recognize. Lexical identification: lemma: πάθος. See Disgraceful ignorance.