Dialectic · Thursday, June 25, 2026
Virtue and Knowledge
Greek Ethics — Socrates vs Aristotle
The claim
"No one does evil knowingly. Every wrongdoing is a failure of understanding."
The premises that support it
- Every person desires what is good for themselves.
- If a person truly understood that an action would harm them, they would not choose it.
- Therefore, wrongdoing is ignorance about what is genuinely good.
The counter-example
A heavy smoker, fully informed of cancer risk, chooses to smoke anyway. They report: 'I know this is bad for me. I do it anyway.'