Tyranny and Wisdom

<p>In the Ancient world one began the study of Plato with two dialogues: the <em>Greater Alcibiades </em>and the <em>Gorgias</em> which depict Socrates' first conversations with two famous men: Alcibiades the Athenian statesman general and traitor-and the great sophist Gorgias who taught ambitious young men like Alcibiades how to rise as their society declined around them. </p><p></p><p>Greg Johnson's <em>Tyranny & Wisdom</em> leads you carefully through these dialogues and demonstrates that the Ancients were right: together they are an excellent introduction to Plato. Here we encounter Plato's most challenging ideas threaded together by a highly dramatic conflict between two ways of life: the pursuit of power vs. the pursuit of wisdom. </p><p></p>