Practice Management

Litigation: Thinking Warriors.

By Dan Hull

There has been no illustrious captain who did not possess taste and a feeling for the heritage of the human mind. At the root of Alexander's victories one will always find Aristotle.

--Charles de Gaulle, Army of the Future (1934)

(Bettmann Archives)

Alexander the Great was "out there". He was well-educated, persistent, confident, smart--and a brilliant commander and politician. An warrior's warrior. Alexander was also wild and self-destructive. His men, who loved him, sometimes mutinied.

Alexander worried his fellow Macedonians back home, as he bullied and charmed his way through the then-known world. Many texts say that his off-the-charts political and personal excesses greatly also worried his teacher, Aristotle, the measured and cautious academic. Alexander was, in fact, a student of Aristotle at his school in Mieza.

Aristotle's mentor, of course, was Plato, who was himself mystical, poetic, and aristocratic. Plato was more like Alexander in background and personality--perhaps a better teacher-student match for the young Alexander.

But Plato died when Alexander was 8, and when Aristotle was only 37.

Hey, don't stop reading. Lawyers, students, politicians and business leaders--and especially trial lawyers--should know about these guys.

And their ideas.

Full post as published by What About Clients? on August 15, 2009 (boomark / email).