Open Socrates

The Case for a Philosophical Life

De: Agnes Callard

Narrado por: Agnes Callard

An iconoclastic philosopher revives Socrates for our time, showing how we can answer—and, in the first place, ask—life’s most important questions.

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.

©2025 Agnes Callard (P)2025 Recorded Books

Interesting and thoughtful

I had no idea how interesting Socrates is! Highly recommended. Thought provoking and insightful. Now Socrates will be a part of my inner life.

The author is clearly not a narrator

I wanted to like this book. I waited for it-- and I'm not sure how it would read in print but having the author read the book was a serious mistake. It's like listening to somebody read a text in front of you. A lack of inflection and monotony that makes it hard to follow anything. If you're gonna try it, I recommend reading it.

Not what you think.

The first and last few chapters are likely why you purchased the book: a fresh take on applying Socrates to life. Everything in between is better left for college students or academic philosophers. (It’s another example of how academic philosophy has made philosophy for the rarefied few and how the academy has made philosophy not for the masses…which is antithetical to all of Ancient Greek philosophy.) Too bad the author also narrated. Professional narrators make even the most complex philosophy understandable on audio. It’s a skill. The author likely had a dose of hubris to think she could write about a complex philosopher, teach the college course and do the narration. Know thyself. And thy limits…

Hire a good reader next time!

I was very interested in this book, and so decided to buy it even though the preview showed that author was a mediocre reader. But her voice and inflections and mispronunciations gradually grate
ever-more annoyingly. Now I only listen for short periods of time. I’m only part way through, and I’m still interested enough not to return it, at least not yet!

The Life Socratic

A modern guide for walking the path of a life in the way of Socrates. This book is smart, funny, relevant, and insightful. There are true gems in here. This book will make me a better man, father, student, friend, husband, and son. I'm so grateful for Socrates and the lessons Agnes Callard has pulled out of the Platonic texts. Well worth the listen and honestly cannot wait to do it again.

New insights on Socrates and human justification

Although many people criticize the author for reading the book herself, I don’t mind it at all. In fact, I find her intonations easier to attend to than many who, for instance, end every sentence as if it were a question. This book is interesting, well argued, and clear.

An opposite of hell

Sartre declared hell is other people, but Callard makes a strong, meaningful argument that argumentation with others is the closest we can obtain to heaven. She makes, a bottom, a claim that thinking is what we do with others and it is only with others we can inquire and so become better than we are.

Timely, well read, and well thought. Well, it is written, so not quite thinking

Fascinating Philosophy

Concerns about her reading performance are overblown — she did fine. Her take on Socrates is well with the read.