Open Socrates
The Case for a Philosophical Life
Erschienen am 6. Januar 2026
Buch
Softcover
416 Seiten
978-1-324-12341-5 (ISBN)
Beschreibung
Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him the father of Western philosophy, but what exactly are his philosophical views? He is famous for his humility, but readers often find him arrogant and condescending. We parrot his claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living," yet take no steps to live examined ones. We know that he was tried, convicted, and executed for "corrupting the youth," but freely assign Socratic dialogues to today's youths, to introduce them to philosophy. We've lost sight of what made him so dangerous. In Open Socrates, acclaimed philosopher Agnes Callard recovers the radical move at the center of Socrates' thought, and shows why it is still the way to a good life.
Callard draws our attention to Socrates' startling discovery that we don't know how to ask ourselves the most important questions-about how we should live, and how we might change. Before a person even has a chance to reflect, their bodily desires or the forces of social conformity have already answered on their behalf. To ask the most important questions, we need help. Callard argues that the true ambition of the famous "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 questions and challenge your answers.
Callard shows that Socrates' method allows us to make progress in thinking about how to manage romantic love, how to confront one's own death, and how to approach politics. In the process, she gives us nothing less than a new ethics to live by.
Callard draws our attention to Socrates' startling discovery that we don't know how to ask ourselves the most important questions-about how we should live, and how we might change. Before a person even has a chance to reflect, their bodily desires or the forces of social conformity have already answered on their behalf. To ask the most important questions, we need help. Callard argues that the true ambition of the famous "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 questions and challenge your answers.
Callard shows that Socrates' method allows us to make progress in thinking about how to manage romantic love, how to confront one's own death, and how to approach politics. In the process, she gives us nothing less than a new ethics to live by.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Socrates, Callard argues, inaugurated a whole way of life-a new way of being a person. It's possible not just to employ the Socratic method, in other words, but to live by it." -- Joshua Rothman - The New Yorker "This is the latest-and the best in a long time-case for leading a philosophic life.... It also will start a whole new and much needed dialogue on what a philosophic life really means." -- Tyler Cowen - Marginal Revolution "Callard's accessible and immensely insightful book should command the attention of armchair and professional psychologists and philosophers." -- Glenn C. Altschuler, PhD - Psychology Today "Open Socrates is lively and clever. It brings the persona of Socrates to life, painting a vivid picture of a gripping character with friendships, values and passions." -- Quill Kula - The Washington Post "[S]uperb...the most gripping new philosophical book I've read in years...teems with insights into our world...The great virtue of the book is that the author makes this ugly old Athenian shock us anew with his insights into the things that really matter but that we are fearful of addressing-how to live, love and die. In each case she suggests that we moderns are doing them all wrong." -- Stuart Jeffries - The Spectator World "How does one move away from ignorance and toward knowledge? For Callard's Socrates, there is only one way: unceasing, open-minded inquiry into seemingly simple questions in conversation with others." -- Natasha O'Neill - Vanity Fair "Open Socrates ...inspires us to live more philosophically; it pushes us to think about how to live a life defined by actual principles that we reflectively endorse and not simply the most expedient rationalizations that occur to us in any given situation." -- Olufemi O. Taiwo - The Nation "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 "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, The New Yorker contributing writer and editor of The Annotated Mrs. DallowayWeitere Details
Sprache
Englisch
Verlagsort
New York
USA
Illustrationen
2 illustrations
Maße
Höhe: 204 mm
Breite: 137 mm
Dicke: 27 mm
Gewicht
338 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-12341-5 (9781324123415)
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