Book Review | The Quest for Character

The Quest for Character - Alcibiades and Socrates - BUY NOW

THE QUEST FOR CHARACTER: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders | Massimo Pogliucci, Basic Books, (2022), 272p.

Using the life of Alcibiades as the canvas, Pagliucci paints a vivid lesson in five parts: 1 - Virtue can and should be taught. 2 - If you are not virtuous, don’t get into politics. 3 - A good character is an inside job. 4 - We should all be “philosophers.” And 5 - What works when it comes to improving character.

Pigliucci argues that these two figures - Socrates & Alcibiades - embody opposing leadership and character development approaches. By studying their lives and ideas, we can gain insight into what it takes to become a good leader.

Excellence in Greek is “arete,” and is more recognizable in its Latin form as “virtue.” What makes an excellent human? Socrates not only wandered the streets of Athens, provoking inquiry into this topic, but also tutored a handful of disciplines, including one of this favorite - and, as it would turn out, his worst student - Alcibiades. While successful at times, Alcibiades was anything but excellent as a human. 

Amidst the Peloponnesian War, they both served Athens as soldiers. When Alcibiades sought Socrates’ advice on his intention to seek public office, Socrates responded with typical inquiry, investigating the nature of his drive and purpose. After which, he concluded it was merely for vainglory and self-aggrandizement. He declared to Alcibiades that he was “too wed to stupidity” and must seek more wisdom before pursuing leadership. Alcibiades ignored his sage’s advice. 

Suffice it to say calamity ensued. After dramatic victories and betrayals, Alcibiades was assassinated in a hail of arrows. Lost to history is who ordered the hit - the Athenians or Sparta - both of whom he had championed and betrayed in separate capers. Both had motivation and opportunity, as they say.

His writing is lucid and clear, but his narrative is untidy. Given that the world needs more works in the genre of Plutarch’s Lives - grand moral biographies - from which our age can learn plenty, Pagilucci’s addition is most welcome.

The Quest for Character - Alcibiades and Socrates - BUY NOW