In Plato’s Republic, Socrates famously proposes to create an ideal regime ruled by philosopher-kings. One of his companions, Adeimantus, replies that most philosophers, “when they carry on the study, . . . become strange monsters, not to say utter rogues,” and that “those who may be considered the best of them are made useless to the world by the very study that you extol.” He argues that, whatever the merits of philosophy, when we look around us and observe actual philosophers, the best of them are made useless or even dangerous to politics.
Even Socrates, the defender of the philosopher-king, admits that Adeimantus has a point. Philosopher Neven Sesardic’s book amasses a great deal of evidence in support of Adeimantus’s warning that even great philosophers usually go wrong when thinking about politics.
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