This is a book that is charming, intelligent and occasionally annoying ... Despite some of her grander pronouncements, Callard invites us to think alongside her. Open Socrates encourages us to recognize how little we know, and to start thinking.
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.
Callard is quite right, and her Socratic conclusion is worth internalising ... It seems rather neat that Socrates would reach the same conclusions as rationalist, atheistic, elite-educated philosophers with bohemian lifestyles. One would be forgiven for perhaps finding these conclusions a little self-serving, although, to her credit, Callard is very keen to be questioned and is clearly joyfully up for disagreeing with you: while we might struggle to emulate Socrates all the time, Callard’s book reminds us that we need more philosophy than ever.
