The Quest for Character

"We've always been plagued by leaders who are selfish, tyrannical, egotistical, short-sighted, or just plain bad. But can those leaders ever learn how to be better people? Is good character something that can be taught? In the Athens of 430 BCE, people certainly thought so. The task fell to philosophers: great minds like Socrates who should, in theory, be able to train anyone in the fine art of virtue. Socrates set out to teach the vain, power-seeking statesman Alcibiades how to be a good person - and failed spectacularly. Alcibiades went on to beguile his city into an idiotic war with Sparta, and all of Athens paid the price. The Quest for Character tells this famous story and asks what we can learn from it. Socrates' greatest failure has been retold in accounts from Plato to Cicero, and philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci blends ancient sources with modern interpretations to give a full picture of the complicated relationship between the two men. Pigliucci also shares other examples, from Alexander the Great to Marcus Aurelius, of philosophers trying to teach politicians good character. Through their successes and failures, he reveals what philosophy can teach us about the quest for character today - how we can both avoid the ancients' pitfalls and walk along the path they created. Our own country continues to reel from the decisions of charismatic but foolish politicians about war, pandemic, climate change, and more, making The Quest for Character both timely and timeless. Tackling big-picture ethical questions, The Quest for Character reveals how ancient history can illuminate - sometimes chillingly - our modern dilemmas"--