On the 6th of March 2025 Jeffrey Wilson’s gave a lecture at the Corvinus University of Budapest. The lecture as well as the “wine and bread” reception was a great success. PPE as well as MBA students had the opportunity to make comments and have questions. The friendly, good-humoured conversation continued for hours after the lecture.  

At the beginning of the discussion on Aristotle, Jeffrey Wilson reminded us of Plato, the head of good power is in the sky, the feet of power are on the ground. He told the story of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who in anger cut off his servant’s ear, but immediately repented and told his servant that he would use all his power to make amends. However, he could not, because the servant demanded that the emperor put back the ear he had cut off. Unlike the ancients, however, today power is not just the opportunity and ability to act, but the action itself, and this can be dangerous. 

Referring to what is happening in modern times, the professor said that it would be essential to apply the empiricism of Aristotle and David Hume, for whom practice is more important than theory. For then we would not be able to bend the data to our preferred theory.