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.
Lively and clever. It brings the persona of Socrates to life, painting a vivid picture of a gripping character with friendships, values and passions ... Many people simply do not have the time or resources to devote their lives to intellectual thought and conversation. I consider many of their lives valuable and worth living, and I set an extremely high bar — higher than Open Socrates can meet — for an argument to convince me otherwise.
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.
