Open Socrates

"In this brilliant and probing book, Agnes Callard thinks with and about Socrates, renewing his philosophy for the present by inviting her audience to become philosophical with her. For Callard, to become philosophical is to value intellectual life, to cultivate inquisitiveness, and to be open to arguments that make you rethink what you know, or to think about what you know for the first time… In the place of a Socrates we may associate with perpetual irony and clever domination there emerges a philosopher of love who brings the practice of living and the mindful preparation for dying into a challenging conversation. Callard gives us a Socrates for the present in a book in which openness is its theme and manner. This book delivers the gift of thought as an open and beautiful invitation." -Judith Butler

"Why might one think like a philosopher? Or just inject some philosophical thinking into an otherwise ordinary life? Agnes Callard’s radical manifesto, Open Socrates, makes the strongest possible case for inquiry, repeated questioning, and extreme philosophical curiosity. It holds the potential to change everything you think, feel, and do." -Tyler Cowen, George Mason University

"Agnes Callard gives us a brilliant and vivid account of what a truly philosophic life could be. Her Socrates is a magnificent figure: uncompromisingly open, brave enough to live life without foundations and to pursue truth at all costs, yet no loner, but a man convinced that thinking is something we must do together. The book is both a challenge and an inspiration." -John Ferrari, Berkeley

"Agnes Callard has a remarkable gift for making ancient philosophy feel modern, urgent, and electrifyingly alive. In her hands, Socrates and Plato aren’t distant figures but conversation partners pushing us to think through the deepest and most important questions of our lives." -Ian Leslie, author of How to Disagree

"Open Socrates will keep you up at night thinking about thinking: what makes it so hard to think about the questions we most deeply care about and how can we make progress? Drawing on thinkers as diverse as Leo Tolstoy and William James and William Clifford to sharpen the difficulties, Agnes Callard describes how Plato’s Socrates practiced a kind of open-to-refutation joint inquiry into questions on which our actions and lives depend, and applies this Socratic approach to questions of politics, love, and death. The resulting discussions are chock-full of surprises and insights. Callard is the Socrates of our times." -Rachana Kamtekar, Cornell University author of Plato’s Moral Psychology

"It is un-Socratic to praise a book that teaches us to be skeptical of praise or any settled judgment. Open Socrates is a work of the deepest intellectual integrity. Agnes Callard does not seek our agreement or approval. She encourages us to live life by questioning everything, even—or especially—her own words." -Merve Emre, New Yorker contributing writer and editor of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway