The Quest for Character
What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The author of How to Be a Stoic asks what might be philosophy's ultimate question: can we learn to be better people?
Is good character something that can be taught? In 430 BCE, Socrates set out to teach the vain, power-seeking Athenian statesman Alcibiades how to be a good person—and failed spectacularly. Alcibiades went on to beguile his city into a hopeless war with Syracuse, and all of Athens paid the price.
In The Quest for Character, philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci tells this famous story and asks what we can learn from it. He blends ancient sources with modern interpretations to give a full picture of the philosophy and cultivation of character, virtue, and personal excellence—what the Greeks called arete. At heart, The Quest for Character isn’t simply about what makes a good leader. Drawing on Socrates as well as his followers among the Stoics, this book gives us lessons perhaps even more crucial: how we can each lead an excellent life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pigliucci (How to Be a Stoic), a philosophy professor at City College of New York, examines in this enlightening study whether it's possible to get society's leaders "to care about the general welfare so that humanity may prosper not just economically and materially but also spiritually." First, he focuses on Socrates's unsuccessful efforts to teach his "friend, student, and rumored lover" Alcibiades—whose self-aggrandizing and treacherous behavior would later contribute to the downfall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War—how to be virtuous. In their dialogues, Alcibiades seems to agree with Socrates's claims that "what is just is also advantageous" and that being a good leader requires "moderation and justice," yet he cannot shake his desire for "fame and glory." Turning from this failed attempt to analyses of other interactions between philosophers and politicians (Aristotle and Alexander the Great; Seneca and Nero), Pigliucci suggests that the best way to influence others is to build one's own character ("We have a chance, and arguably a duty, to work on ourselves, to try to become at least slightly better human beings than we were yesterday") and provides a syllabus for a self-study course on "ethical self-improvement." This lucid and accessible tour through ancient philosophy offers valuable lessons for today.
