Bettany Hughes interview: The historian on how Socrates would have solved Greece's problems

People tend to have a knee-jerk response to the word 'philosophy' You imagine it's abstract and inaccessible. But the famous thing about someone like Socrates was, as Cicero said, that he brought philosophy down from the sky and on to the street. He lived a real life: he drank, had sex, had two wives and was not a hero or a saint. One idea he had that I like was that when we do wrong to someone, it's not that we damage that person, but ourselves, inflicting harm on our most precious possession – our soul.

Socrates would not have allowed the modern Greek state to get into this mess He had this great line: "Never pursue wealth at the expense of wisdom." Now, he doesn't say you have to be a saint or hermit – he says enjoy life, but find a middle path between self-denial and selfish excess. But at some point – from the Greek politicians' side and the lenders' end – the way finances were structured to get that balance was wrong.

Forgiveness gives you a chance to be fulfilled rather than be eaten up with anger For a BBC1 show I did on the history of forgiveness, I interviewed the widow of the pilot of the first plane that went into the Twin Towers. She'd done an extraordinary thing by choosing to forgive the hijackers. It was very brave and she took a lot of criticism from people saying she was being anti-American. But she said, "I had to forgive as it was the only thing that gives me power over them: until then I was consumed with anger, sorrow, resentment and rage." ...