Agnes Callard (@AgnesCallard) / X

Agnes Callard

33.2K posts

Agnes Callard

@AgnesCallard

Philosopher, UChicago New book: is.gd/7CVIi6 Point is.gd/WHyOeh NYT is.gd/UonlHb podcast mindsalmostmeeting.com

Profile pic by Zoë van Dijk

philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/a-call…

Joined April 2018

Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Dec 7, 2024
11yo: I need a bandaid for my cut me: but why? it’s not bleeding 11yo: to make it stop hurting me: the bandaid won’t do that 11yo: yes it will, because of the placebo effect
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Dec 19, 2020
Tchaikovsky describes meeting Tolstoy
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Sep 7, 2021
8yo has become obsessed with something he calls “countryballs”; he says “these people are members of our family now,” and refuses to explain further.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Sep 9, 2023
As academia became more competitive, high-achiever types flocked to it & outperformed the weirdos who used to populate it; the result is widespread unhappiness, bc academia is more suited to ppl who obsess over Aristotle's theory of sleep than ppl who want to change the world.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Jul 5, 2025
LLMs made me realize that my whole life, I had been asking A LOT fewer questions than I wanted to be asking.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Aug 4, 2024
I try to be against Klimt but I can’t sustain it
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Jul 29, 2022
My trip to NZ has included: an emergency dental visit ($45) a course of antibiotics ($12) a visit to the ER ($0) another course of antibiotics ($9) (prices in USD) In the US this would add up to one (1) million dollars I'd like to PUBLICLY THANK the New Zealand healthcare system
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Jan 24, 2025
If we were designed to think solo, monologue would be easier than dialogue. Dialogue involves INCREDIBLY complex acts of prediction, coordination, task-switching and mind-reading--yet we find it MUCH easier than monologue. Why? Maybe thinking is a bicycle built for 2.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
May 15, 2021
Husband is sad that he broke a nice glass me: it was very fragile we were going to break it eventually 12yo: This is like that part in the Iliad where Zeus is upset about Sarpedon dying and Hera says "you knew it was going to happen eventually, mortals are fated to die."
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Nov 1, 2022
9yo: mama you DIDN'T throw out the halloween candy?!--- [background: we have a halloween tradition where after the kids go to bed, I throw all their candy in the garbage. The next morning, they are filled with rage.] ---thank you SO much!!! [hugs & kisses] Reader, I forgot.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Nov 1, 2022
Replying to @AgnesCallard
ppl who are morally outraged on behalf of my children: don't come crying to me when your children write boring memoirs called My Parents Were Always Nice
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Feb 7, 2024
Scott Alexander argues that advice is disproportionately written by defective people, so maybe...
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Feb 5, 2024
It continues to amaze me how large a % of internet writing is advice of some form
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Apr 18, 2021
Just realized: Socrates never says the examined life is worth living.
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Jan 7, 2022
It all depends on how you ask the question