Agnes Collard was born on January 6, 1976, in Budapest, Hungary; she received her B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1997, and her Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley in 2008. She is a philosopher at the University of Chicago.
For a review of Professor Callard's accessible new 2025 book, see the NYT nonfiction book critic Jennifer Szalai's article "The Secret to a Good Life? Thinking Like Socrates. In Open Socrates, the University of Chicago scholar Agnes Callard argues that the ancient Greek philosopher offers a blueprint for an ethical life" (dated January 15, 2025) in The New York Times.
In it, among other things, Szalai says, "Callard's name may be familiar to those who have read a profile of her in The New Yorker. She left her first marriage, to another philosopher, to marry a graduate student, also another philosopher. She talks as if love is an ecstatically intellectual pursuit, at least when it's going well."
Incidentally, Agnes Callard also appears frequently in The New York Times.
Now, the NYT nonfiction book critic Szalai also says, "Socratic inquiry, with its emphasis on [back-and-forth] dialogue, reveals thinking as a communal process: 'In the presence of others, something becomes possible that isn't possible when you are alone [as we are when we write something]."
Ah, but not all face-to-face back-and-forth dialogue of two persons who are in the presence of one another leads to what Buber describes as an I-thou encounter.
Now, the most efficient way for me to provide you with an introductory overview of Callard's accessible new 2025 book Open Socrates is to tell you its parts:
Title page (p. i).
Copyright page (p. ii).
"Contents" page (p. iii).
Half-title page (p. v).
"Introduction: The Man Whose Name Is an Example" (pp. 1-22).
"Part One: Untimely Questions" (p. 23).
"Chapter 1: The Tolstoy Problem" (pp. 25-50).
"Chapter 2: Load-Bearing Answers" (pp. 51-76).
"Chapter 3: Savage Commands" (pp. 77-109).
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