Open Socrates

Summary

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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, 2500 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.

© Agnes Callard 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025