Open Socrates

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, perhaps the single most important figure in Western culture, is hidden in plain view. If his claim that 'the unexamined life is not worth living' has ceased to shock us, that is not because we know how to live examined ones; we speak of 'the Socratic method' in ignorance of just how much that method demands of us. In Open Socrates, acclaimed philosopher Agnes Callard takes us deeper into Socrates’ thought than any modern writer has.

As she shows, Socrates noticed that the most important questions start off closed: before a person even has a chance to ponder how she should live, her bodily desires or the forces of social conformity have already answered on her behalf. Is it even possible to ask a question that you think you have already answered? Callard answers yes — but we can’t do it alone. She argues that the true ambition of the Socratic method is to reveal what one human being can be to another. You can use another person in many ways — for survival, for pleasure, for comfort — but you are engaging them to the fullest when you call on them to help answer your own questions, and challenge your own answers.

How should we manage romantic love? What is the right way to think about one’s own death? What form should our politics take? These were the most intractable questions back in Socrates’ time, and that continues to be true, 2,500 years later. Callard shows us how Socrates' method allows us to make progress in answering them — and, in the process, gives us nothing less than a new ethics to live by.

Brilliant, compulsive -- Tim Adams Guardian Open Socrates — quite the most gripping new philosophical book I've read in years — teems with insights into our world -- Stuart Jeffries Spectator Bracing and brilliant… Socrates offers neither miracle cures nor lifestyle hacks: the road to “epistemological humility”, Callard argues, is long and bumpy. Crucially, it’s a journey we embark on together Guardian Socrates used to say that he knew nothing other than the fact of his own ignorance... Callard invites us to think alongside her. Open Socrates encourages us to recognise how little we know, and to start thinking The New York Times While we might struggle to emulate Socrates all the time, Callard’s book reminds us that we need more philosophy than ever. The freedom to disagree as equal partners in an on-going collective effort to understand untimely questions must be defended: there are few higher things Telegraph Callard speaks directly to what you might call the Fleabag generation... The fear Fleabag expresses — that you’re somehow living your life all wrong — is shared by millennials and Gen X alike, and Callard’s Socratic vision offers a way out that is not glib, that requires more effort than journaling or posting reels, but that might help people change their thinking -- Nilanjana Roy Financial Times Intellectually challenging and hardly a simple crash course on Socrates, but the payoff is worth the time and effort put into rethinking approaches to philosophy and life Independent If you’re a fan of Alain de Botton’s The Consolations of Philosophy, Agnes Callard’s look at the ancient Greek’s famous Socratic method will be a hit... Callard explains how putting real effort into intellectual dialogues with the people around us can help us figure out modern life, love and even death Shortlist For Callard, philosophy isn’t just her job, or an intellectual exercise. She wants it to be what it was intended as by Socrates: a guide to living a good life -- Angus Colwell Spectator Professor of philosophy and a public intellectual for the internet age, Callard shows how Socrates can inform the way we live our lives – from romance to politics – nearly two and a half thousand years after his death -- Books to Look Forward to in 2025 Guardian

Agnes Callard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her primary areas of specialization are ancient philosophy and ethics. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper's, Boston Review, and penned a monthly column for the Point. From 2019 to 2020, she held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the research that contributes to this book.

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