Time

Thu 3 Sep 2026, at 14:00

Place

Room 109, Building 3, Lee Shau Kee Humanities Hall

Speaker

Professor Vasilis Politis, Trinity College Dublin

Language

English

This is the 5th lecture of the PKU Ancient Philosophy Lecture Series.

Abstract

This lecture challenges the standard reading of Plato on human evil. Contrary to the prevalent view that Plato is an evilsceptic who reduces evil to mere ignorance, lack of good, or psychic disorder, I argue that Plato is a robust evilrealist. The crux lies in distinguishing privation of good from opposition to good. An evil person is not simply deficient in goodness; he is actively and knowingly set against it. This is captured by my notion of “double ignorance”: the evil person not only lacks knowledge of the good but also arrogantly believes he possesses it, and his soul is not merely disordered but in rebellion against reason and wholeness. By recovering this neglected dimension, I connect Plato to contemporary debates on the reality of evil, arguing that his view offers a more nuanced alternative than either the extremitybased or sceptical positions now dominant. The lecture thus repositions Plato as a vital interlocutor for current philosophy of evil, not a relic of intellectualist optimism.