The Quest for Character

What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders

MASSIMO

PIGLIUCCI

What Socrates’ greatest failure reveals about an ancient question: can we teach our leaders 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.

Massimo Pigliucci is the K. D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He has written for publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author or editor of 12 books including HOW TO BE A STOIC: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books (US)/Rider (UK), 2017), A HANDBOOK FOR NEW STOICS (The Experiment (US)/Rider (UK), 2019) and, most recently, A FIELD GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE (Basic Books (US)/Rider (UK), 2020). He lives in New York City.

AGENT

Peter Tallack

PUBLISHER

4th Estate (UK)/Beacon (US)

PUBLICATION

2 March 2023

LENGTH

320 pages

RIGHTS SOLD

• UK & Commonwealth (Fourth Estate)

• US & Canada (Beacon)

• German (HanserBlau)

• Japan (Shueisha)

• Netherlands (Ten Have)