The Case for and against a Philosophical Life - Agnes Callard and Susan Wolf

Agnes Callard (University of Chicago), Susan Wolf (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

The Case for and against a Philosophical Life

Agnes Callard and Susan Wolf

Wed., April 9, 2025, 11am-1pm

Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105

To register for in-person attendance, RSVP here.https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffv8LW9rawJTeHO5qelab1Pn3ZqrFRsrVEQDqcQ6kjKUG4aw/viewform

To register for virtual (Zoom) attendance, RSVP here.https://duke.zoom.us/meeting/register/cjaxpktPTOqJvEbSnQAPXA#/registration

There are important questions about your life that you are avoiding, right now, as you read this. You tell yourself that now is not the moment to attempt an answer. Like other people you know, you are taking life 15 minutes at a time, distracting yourself with work, with TV shows, with anything that will allow you to move forward. Everyone quietly reassures everyone else: this is fine, we are all doing it, we can keep going on like this until each of us dies.

2500 years ago, a man said “this is not fine.” The reaction was mixed. Some people were intrigued by the possibility of asking such important questions, and by the conversations that only he seemed able to have. Others were outraged, and demanded a return to the kinds of conversations everyone used to have before he came along. Eventually, the second group won out, and he was put to death.

The man, whose name was Socrates, predicted that his objection would live on, and it did, in certain circles, though it was dulled, softened, quieted. Socrates believed that a life devoted to open inquiry was the right course, not only for self-styled “intellectuals,” but for everyone. Taking Socrates as a guide, this Open Socrates steers directly into the fundamental questions, and shows how we can make progress toward answering them.