Disruptive avatar: Socrates (and Agnes Callard)

That's another name for Philosopher, at least the sort fashioned in a Socratic mold. University of Chicago professor Dr. Agnes Callard's new book is out just in time for the start of our semester. (And she'll be our Lyceum guest in March.*) Can't wait to resume my disruptive vocation on Tuesday. There will be questions, starting as always with "Who are you? Why are you here?" And why are we?

"Socrates did not write great books. And yet he is responsible for one truly great creation: the character of Socrates. Socrates made himself into someone that other people could be. He fashioned his very person into a kind of avatar or mascot for anyone who ventures to ask the sorts of questions that disrupt the course of a life."

— Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard

 

*Dr. Callard's Lyceum visit will be on March 28:

Title: The Wrong Conversation

In my book Open Socrates, I make the case that all of us ought to be doing much more philosophizing. I also define philosophizing in a conversational way: to think philosophically is to think together with another person who is trying to refute what you say in answer to some fundamental question.  In this talk, I will address the puzzle of why we don't tend to do this.  If philosophy is so great, why do we avoid it?  Why aren't we having philosophical conversations all the time?  And: how could we build a bridge between the world we live in and the one where we are open to shared inquiry?

I'm so pleased with Dr. Callard's topic, as it mirrors my own preferred approach to philosophy as a conversational endeavor. That's why I call our course CoPhilosophy, after a remark by William James (see the masthead above). It's why I encourage you all to think for yourselves but not by yourselves. Good philosophy converses (and that includes listening, not just talking and writing).

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UPDATE. I've congratulated Dr. Callard on the positive publicity she's received since the book's publication (including a full-page ad in the latest edition of Harper's Magazine, and an essay/review in The New Yorker.) She says

Thank you!  This is my favorite review so far:

THE COMMON READER

A place where knowledge is ours for the taking.

Open Socrates by Agnes Callard

HENRY OLIVER

JAN 24, 2025

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Sitting in his prison cell, hours before his death, Socrates doubted himself. Had he been wrong to give his life to philosophy?

This is not the usual emphasis given to Socrates’ final hours, but Agnes Callard, in her new book Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life, draws attention to a small but fascinating detail about Socrates’ last days. He had started writing poetry.

For years, Socrates had argued against the poets. They were ignorant, and worse, they didn’t know they were ignorant. Unlike philosophy, poetry was not a way to find true knowledge. It was an impediment to knowledge. For years, too, Socrates had refused to write anything down... (continues)