Book Review: 'Open Socrates' shows why philosophy isn't a spectator sport
“Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life” is a look at how the ancient Greek philosopher's approach can be applied to the thorniest topics today
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.During a time when many are complaining about divisiveness in politics and in society, it seems counterintuitive for a book to make the case that we need to argue more.
But in “Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life,” Agnes Callard illustrates how philosophy isn't just a spectator sport. It requires engaging with one another and arguing with each other, and admitting mistakes.
Callard offers a roadmap for using the ancient Greek philosopher for approaching knotty discussion on topics such as love, politics and death.
Callard's book is 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.
The book urges readers to not equate thinking with retreating from conversation and avoiding disputes. Thinking, Callard writes, requires interacting with others the same way Socrates did — even arguing with them. Philosophy isn't meant to be comfortable, she stresses.
“Thinking happens during the uncomfortable times when you permit others to intrude into your private mental world, to correct you,” Callard writes.
At the same time, Callard writes that Socrates' approach shows that the type of disputes philosophy requires can't be viewed as a zero-sum game. It also requires those involved to involved to admit their errors.
That lesson is what makes the two chapters Callard devotes to applying Socrates to politics the most valuable, especially after last year's election. As she writes, “we live together because we think together.”
___
AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews