Reading Time: 7 minutes

“Amathia survives because it promises safety from change, while knowledge insists we evolve.” – MJ Martin

Introduction

This week, I sat in a bar on Thursday night to have dinner before bed and a very early morning flight home the next day from Calgary to Toronto.

Sitting beside me was a middle age woman. She had books all over the bar and was eating her dinner too. This is not an uncommon scene for me.

She engaged with me immediately. From her initial comments I could instantly understand that she was looking down on me. I was dressed as a working man and not as an executive of a serious business. My warm Caterpillar hoodie was to protect me from the cold experienced all day long as I supervised a crew preparing an AMI gateway for a municipality.

She examined me and saw no wedding ring, so she asked about my wife. I answered her multiple questions as truthfully as possible. I told her that I worked in the communications technology industry.

She snapped to conclusions. All wrong. I could not get a word in edgewise. I tried to corrected her as she endlessly observed me and critiqued me. It was worse than a job interview. I just wanted dinner and to watch the NBA and NFL on the screens above the bar. I tried to ignore her.

She jumped into politics and started to share her extreme point of view. She was a blind devotee of Trump and his perspectives. I am not. She said that she was from Calgary so I found her religious political beliefs surprising for a Canadian. My much smarter than me, better 1/3, Candy, calls people like her a “Maple MAGA”.

At this point I had enough. I physically turned towards the gentleman to my right and engaged in sports discussions while awaiting my dinner to arrive. I tried to tune her out. I was too exhausted to debate silliness.

Regardless, she continued to tell me how stupid all the non-Trump followers were and how ignorant they were. I softly responded that I was not a Trump fan. She became more aggressive in her attacks to the point it was downright annoying. I considered moving away from her. Luckily, she was frustrated by my lack of attention and packed up and left the restaurant. Also luckily another sports fan took her seat and joined into our group dialogue about football and basketball. Life was good again.

However, I continued to ponder her perspective and an ancient word taught to me during my Master of Education degree came to mind, “Amathia”. So this morning I reviewed several articles and academic papers on this topic to refresh my memory. Here are a few thoughts to consider.

Amathia

Amathia is a concept with startling relevance for the modern world.  Although we live in a time of unprecedented access to information, the human tendency toward stubborn ignorance persists.  The Greeks distinguished between simple lack of knowledge and something far more dangerous: a wilful, rigid refusal to learn.  This deeper form of unknowing, rooted not in the mind but in the soul, continues to shape politics, culture, and public discourse.  Understanding amathia allows us to see how individuals and societies can remain blind even when surrounded by the light of knowledge.

Defining Amathia

The term amathia appears frequently in classical Greek philosophy, most notably in the works of Plato.  It is often translated as “ignorance,” but this rendering does not capture its nuance.  Amathia is not the innocent ignorance of lacking information; it is, as Socrates implied, “the ignorance of not wanting to know.”  This form of unknowing is tied to character, disposition, and moral orientation.  It represents a failure of the whole person, not simply a failure of intellect.  The amathic individual lives in a state where beliefs are accepted without examination, where truth is subordinate to desire, and where learning is resisted because it threatens identity or comfort.

Historical Meaning and Context

In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates tirelessly interrogated citizens of Athens who believed themselves wise.  Their confidence collapsed under scrutiny, revealing that they possessed opinions rather than knowledge.  Amathia described this condition: the illusion of wisdom combined with hostility toward genuine inquiry.  In the Apology, Socrates argues that his own wisdom consists only in knowing that he does not know.  The unexamined life, he insisted, invites a blindness that corrupts judgement.  When people cling to unfounded certainty, they drift toward moral and civic failure.

Aristotle, though less explicit, also addressed a similar idea when distinguishing between akrasia (weakness of will) and a deeper rational disorder where individuals cannot be persuaded by reasons that challenge their self-image. 

Centuries later, Karl Popper revived the classical spirit by warning that reason will often “serve ideology and not truth.”  When belief becomes intertwined with identity, evidence becomes a threat, and inquiry collapses into defence.  Popper’s critique echoes the Greek description of amathia as a perversion of rational capabilities.

Amathia and the Good of Knowledge

Socrates and Plato held that the highest good is knowledge: not mere data, but lived understanding that aligns the soul with truth.  To know the good, for them, is to act upon it.  Yet amathia represents the inverse.  Instead of seeking insight, the amathic individual seeks reassurance.  Instead of examining beliefs, they reinforce them.  For Socrates, this was the gravest danger to the polis because it created citizens incapable of self-correction.

Plato’s metaphor of the cave in the Republic illustrates this contrast.  People chained to shadows believe they see reality when they actually perceive only reflections.  Their imprisonment persists not because they lack intelligence, but because they resist the painful journey toward illumination.  This resistance, this refusal to ascend toward truth, encapsulates amathia.  The blindness involved is not of the eyes or even of the intellect; it is, as several scholars note, “a blindness of the soul.”  It stems from a profound unwillingness to reorient one’s values and assumptions, even when confronted by evidence.

Karl Popper and the Distortion of Reason

Karl Popper, a central figure in twentieth-century philosophy of science, expanded on the dangers of self-protective thinking.  His critique of dogmatism carries striking resonance with the classical notion of amathia.  Popper argued that human beings naturally use reason to justify rather than to discover.  We rationalize our beliefs, defend our group’s truths, and interpret facts in ways that preserve our identity.  Reason, in this view, becomes an instrument of ideology.

Popper’s emphasis on falsifiability was an attempt to counter amathia.  He believed that the only path to genuine knowledge was through a willingness to expose one’s beliefs to refutation.  An amathic society, by contrast, seeks confirmation while avoiding challenge.  Popper warned that this distortion of reason leads to political extremism, suppresses dissent, and fosters intellectual stagnation.

The Risks to Self-Identity

One of the most important aspects of amathia is its relationship to identity.  Modern cognitive science supports what Socrates observed: when beliefs become entwined with a person’s sense of self, contradictory information triggers a threat response.  Psychologists describe this phenomenon as motivated reasoning.  It explains why people often double down on falsehoods even when presented with compelling evidence.

This risk to self-identity converts learning into a psychological battle.  In politics, religion, and ideological debates, individuals increasingly position themselves as defenders of a worldview rather than as seekers of truth.  To change one’s mind becomes synonymous with weakness.  Popper warned that this state of mind corrodes democratic culture because it undermines the humility needed for collective problem-solving.

The Illusion of Wisdom in the Modern World

Despite living in a world of mass knowledge, amhathia thrives.  The A.I. driven digital age has amplified the illusion of wisdom: access to information is often mistaken for understanding.  Online platforms driven by artificial intelligence reward certainty, outrage, and slogan-level thinking.  Socrates would have recognized this dynamic instantly, for it resembles the Athenian citizens who believed themselves knowledgeable because they could speak confidently on any topic.

Plato might describe our digital environment as a new cave, filled with shadows shaped by algorithms and curated by our own preferences.  The proliferation of information paradoxically deepens amathia because it enables individuals to select only the knowledge that confirms their worldview.  The blindness here is not a cognitive limitation but a spiritual one: a refusal to stand in the discomfort of uncertainty.

Amathia and Modern Politics

Amathia is acutely visible in contemporary politics, where certainty is often valued more than truth.  Political identity functions as a tribe, and allegiance requires unwavering belief.  In this landscape, Socrates’ commitment to questioning would be seen as disloyalty.  Popper’s insistence on falsifiability would be dismissed as weakness.  Citizens become convinced that being right is more important than being wise.

Even in societies with high literacy rates and robust access to knowledge like Canada, amathia persists because it arises not from ignorance but from emotional and moral rigidity.  The crisis of misinformation is not simply a failure of fact-checking; it is a failure of intellectual humility.  As experts like Daniel Kahneman have shown, humans are prone to cognitive biases that feed overconfidence.  Plato would describe this as the most dangerous form of ignorance: the illusion of knowing.

Summary

Amathia remains a powerful lens for interpreting the challenges of the modern world.  It reminds us that knowledge is not merely the possession of facts but a moral orientation toward truth.  Socrates taught that wisdom begins with acknowledging one’s ignorance.  Plato warned that the soul can become blind even when the mind appears full.  Popper emphasized that reason must serve truth, not ideology.  Together, these insights form a timeless warning: without humility, inquiry, and self-examination, individuals and societies fall into amathia, mistaking certainty for understanding and belief for knowledge.  In an age overflowing with information, the ancient call to seek wisdom has never been more essential.

About the Author:

Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).

Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V).  He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University].  For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section. 

He holds three master’s degrees, in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 60 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) continuous education in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.