Agnes Callard^[1] (née Gellen;^[2] born 1976) is an American philosopher^[3] and an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago.^[4] Her primary areas of specialization are ancient philosophy and ethics.^[4] She is also noted for her popular writings and work on public philosophy.^[5]

Callard was born on January 6, 1976, in Budapest, Hungary^[1] to a Jewish family.^[6] Her mother, Judit Gellen, was a hematologist and oncologist in the 1980s, specializing in the treatment of AIDS; she also worked as a prison doctor at Riker's Island.^[6] Callard's father studied law in Hungary but became a carpet salesman in the US and retired as a steel exporter.^[6] Both sets of grandparents were Holocaust survivors.^[6] Callard was raised in Budapest until age five.^[6] She and her parents later moved to Rome before settling in the New York metropolitan area.^[6] She has a sister.^[6]

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago, majoring in Fundamentals.^[6] She subsequently earned a Master of Arts in Classics from the University of California, Berkeley, leaving that doctorate program without a dissertation, then studied philosophy at Princeton University before returning to Berkeley^[6] and completing her PhD in philosophy.^[7]

Agnes Callard's longest book is Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming, which outlines and defends a theory about the process of changes in an individual's values, which she calls "aspiration". A summary of the book which was made by a fan and endorsed by the author^[23] divides the book into these core claims and various supporting claims (not reproduced here):^[24]

0. Aspiration is the form of agency directed at the acquisition of values. It is different from ambition, which is the pursuit of external rewards like money or social status, rather than seeking to acquire new values.
1. Aspiration is a unique kind of rational agency, and requires a unique theoretical approach; it cannot be understood in terms of decision theory.
2. "Proleptic reasons" are practical reasons unique to aspirants. These reasons are directed at generating wants, rather than satisfying them.
3. A specific form of psychological conflict called "intrinsic conflict" is unique to aspiration. Aspirants feel torn between their current values and the values they aim to acquire, which makes coming to love or appreciate something difficult.
4. Akrasia is an instance of intrinsic conflict. Akrasia results from the imperfect grasp of values and the need to make decisions based on our current understanding.
5. Aspiration must be framed as a process in which we are guided by the values of the self which we aspire to be, rather than our current values. This framing avoids a dilemma where, as Abbé Sieyès might have put it, "if the new values agree with the old, the change is superfluous; if they disagree, the change cannot come from our rational agency."
6. Individuals are praiseworthy for the good valuational condition they attain through aspiration, while they are blameworthy for the culpable failure to aspire to a better condition.
7. The theory of aspiration helps us understand situations of motherhood and infertility, for example, better than other theories that have so far been invented.

Each numbered claim is supposed to be made by the corresponding numbered chapter in the book, with claim 0 made in the introduction section and claim 7 in the conclusion section.^[24] The reference to Abbé Sieyès refers to the quote attributed to that abbot on bicameralism: "if a second chamber dissents from the first, it is mischievous; if it agrees it is superfluous."^[25] The reference to Sieyès was not made in Callard's book itself, but was made by the summary as a way to explain what the book refers to as "Strawson's Dilemma" (after Galen Strawson, who proposed it).^[26]

Note that "decision theory" in the book's context refers to a number of philosophical theories about decisions, not to the branch of probability known as decision theory.

In 2011, Callard divorced her husband, fellow University of Chicago professor Ben Callard. She began a relationship with Arnold Brooks, who was a graduate student at the time. After a year of dating, they married. Agnes has two children with Callard and one with Brooks. She resides with both her current husband and her ex-husband.^[27]

Callard was diagnosed with autism in her 30s.^[27]

• Callard, Agnes (2018). Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190639488.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-063951-8.^[28]
• Callard, Agnes, ed. (2020). On Anger. MIT Press. ISBN 978-1-946511-56-0. On Anger was selected as one of The New Yorker's "Best Books We Read in 2020".^[29]
• Question everything: a Stone reader. Peter Catapano, Simon Critchley (2022). Liveright, New York. ISBN 978-1-324-09183-7. OCLC 1347117429.^[30]