A Novel Explaining 3000 Years Of Philosophy In 500 Pages
Book Info:
Name: Sophie’s World
Get the book (affiliate link: Sophie’s World )
Author: Jostein Gaarder
ISBN: 978–0374530716
Recommendation: 10/10
“He who cannot draw out three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.”
The novel kick starts with a philosopher in the life of a young girl. One day she found a letter in her mailbox.
“WHO you are?”
It was penned down on it.
Then in another mail, there was a question:
“Where the world comes from?”
The exciting thing was these letters came for another girl named Hilde. They were actually for Hilde. But it was written on it for Hilde that you would get it from Sophie. They were written by the father of Hilde “Albert”.
The author of the letters asked her to think in a very philosophical way to get the answers to these mysterious questions.
Pre-Socratic:
The author starts her philosophical journey from the Pre-Socratic period, who are called Natural philosophers.
Parmenides:
According to Parmenides, the universe is static and our observations have to be made on reasons.
Heraclitus:
On the flip side, Heraclitus says everything is changing. He quotes:
“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
For him, the universe had to be observed by our senses.
This debate then continued throughout the history after them.
Empedocles:
For him, the universe is made up of four components:
And two forces control all of it:
The idea that the universe is made up of very tiny particles was first thought and explained by Greek philosophers.
Anagoxras:
Anagoxras suggested that the universe is made up of very minute particles.
Democritus:
He said that the most ingenious toy in the world is Lego. He came up with the idea of “atoms” by giving the example of building up things by units of lego.
One thing was common in those Pre Socratic philoso[hers. That was all of them were fatalists. They believed in the predetermination of events of the universe.
Heroditus:
Heroditus was the father of history. He wrote that history moves in a very systemic way. He was the only one writing about the great Rome Persian wars for the very first time.
Thucydides:
Thucydides was the father of scientific history and political realism. He wrote about Plato Persian in the fifth war in the fifth century.
Hippocrates:
He proposed blood, yellow flame, black flame, and bile.
He first suggested that treat God as medicine and medicine as God.
Sophie was still fascinated. Where these letters were coming from?
She thought why not find out the stamp on the letters. But most of the time never found the stamp.
She found that they were from Lebanon and they were for Hilde.
She found a silk scarf of Hilde as well.
When she told her mother about all the events happening to her. And that she has started studying philosophy. Her mother first thought that she was taking drugs. But then she found some of the letters of the philosopher. She did no to open them. She regarded them as love letters.
Socratic era:
Letters continued and philosophy entered into the Socratic era. Then Alberto explains about skepticism.
Then she sends a video to her. Alberto gave her a tour of Athens.
Plato talks to her. Plato gave her ideas of idealism.
Aristotle says:
“All I know that I know nothing.”
Some things are fixed and we know some things but many things are hidden.
Then Alberto sent her a letter through a dog named Hermes.
She chased her and reached a cabin near a lake.
She went into it. She saw two pictures which Berkeley and Bjerkeyl.
Then Sophie received a birthday card naming Hilde and she was wished the birthday.
Hellenism:
(Then Hellenism started: when Alexandra’s era ended.)q
Scenics:
Scenic philosophers believed in natural life with no material thing without fame, sex.
Stoicism:
Natural philosophy is true and whatever is for mankind is for everyone.
Epicurus:
Everything is for pleasure. Just like Democratius, they attacked divine interpretations by the theory of materialism. They said live with modesty, gain knowledge from good. Limit your desires, freedom from pain, and fear, and happiness and tranquility are from materialism.
Don’t complicate life.
Every letter was coming to Sophie and named Hilde from Lebanon. Then Alberto asked Sophie to meet. They met in a church.
Medieval age:
It is called as dark ages.
Feudalism was formed, culture was formed, culture came into power.
Neo-Platonism emerged. Saint Augustine’s book City of gods linked Plato with the church Saint Thomas linked Aristotle with the church.
Renaissance:
The era of humanity in which ideas of individualism came.
The concept of God changed. God is beauty.
Scientific innovation:
It started with Copernicus giving: Hele centric theory.
Kepler was a German astronomer. He explained the movement of planets in detail.
Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter. He had many achievements in Physics things.
The philosopher told her about Baroque:
Throughout history, Idealism and materialism were present. But most clearly explained by Baroque.
Then some weird things happened with Hilde.
From the hard disk of the computer, the father of Hilde came and gave him a message.
She ate a banana and throw away the pile of it. Then she saw that birthday wishes were written on it.
The dog gave her a birthday message. He said that sense changes result because senses can be different than reasons. Nothing is final.
Descartes:
He said :
“I think, therefore I am.”
He explained the duality of mind and body. Any fact is to be divided into smaller facts and then should be interpreted.
Spinoza:
He asked to read the Bible with criticism. According to him:
“God is just the substance of the universe, a substance with infinite attributes.”
John Locke:
He was very influential. He gave ideas of the enlightenment. He is regarded as the father of liberalism. Reason and senses are very important. The world is divide into two halves; primary(size and structure) and secondary ( which can not be measured).
Bjerkely:
He said that might be we are not real but are just an illusion. Maybe we are God’s dream.
The characters are the illusion of the father of Hilde. Sophie is an illusion. The writer himself is a character and he is also an illusion. Berkeley:
He presented the theory of immaterialism, perception gives it a mean.
Hume:
He was a historian. Perception is made up of an impression. Interpretation of ideas forms complex imagination.
Enlightenment:
Hilde wakes on the day of her birthday. She found a novel as a gift. Sophie, Hilde, and others were characters in it.
Kant:
Space, time, and causation are sensibilities. Everything is in itself a mystery. We can understand up to a certain limit. The reason is the source of morality. Morality has different standards.
Romanticism:
Individualism was explained clearly. The meanings of humanity were clearly defined.
Hegel:
The individual spirit is subjective and community spirit is objective. Arts, religion, and philosophy are absolute. Hegel quotes:
“Thinking evolves dialectically”
Marx:
He stood against Imperialism. He explained that materialism is actually controlling history. He presented the ideas of Socialism and Communism.
Then Hilde wanted to meet Sophie. Alberto the writer said to Sophie that: Before Hilde’s father arrives why not we get rid of the imagination of Albert Knox who is the father of Hilde.
Darwin:
He explained Natural selection. He told that it’s not important that the strongest survives, who survives who is well adapted to the environment
Freud:
Unconsciousness creates thought and gave the concept of ego, superego. He told that conflicts in unconsciousness resulted in form of miseries.
Then Alberto said to Sophie that if we could produce conflict in Albert’s unconsciousness. So that no thought comes into his consciousness. We could get rid of Albert’s imagination.
Sophie and Alberto were imaginative characters used by Albert to teach Philosophy to Hilde.
They distracted Albert by saying such dialogues and created a void between Hilde and her father.
So that Sophie and Alberto then could celebrate a birthday. Both of them and the mother of Sophie celebrated the birthday of Sophie. After their birthday party, they meet when they are souls. They were wandering in Oslo. Then Alberto explained to her the idea of a free spirit.
(P.S: This book has explained the basis of Philosophy in a very fun and interesting way. I have tried to summarize ideas. It was such a huge pile of information that not more than two or three lines could be written on a single topic. Sorry for that.)
What did the author say about the book?
Justin gardener:
“People say philosophy is interesting but it is difficult to read, boring, academic ad I thought to write my book.”
Originally published at https://theobstacleguy.com on April 2, 2021.
