Sophie's World

[Nightmare9870]

I've shied away from this forum in the past due to the fact that I haven't felt that I was intelligent enough to debate against most of the very bright people I've come across in here. However, I've decided to post a topic on a book that was recommended to me by my old history professor, Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. I've been reading it for a few weeks now and I haven't been able to put it down. I have about a hundred pages left to go. Has anyone read it? What did you think of it?

[mir]

don't worry - you're plenty intelligent enough!! i'm struggling like heck to get through that book for school and it sounds like you're breezing through it!! it's a really interesting book, it's just that it's so much information to take in. i really like it so far, but i think i'll have to read it about five more times before i can remember anything! :D it does make you think, though . . .

[Nightmare9870]

don't worry - you're plenty intelligent enough!!

Thanks. That's greatly appreciated. :)


it sounds like you're breezing through it!!

By no means! I constantly have to go back and re-read sections.


it's just that it's so much information to take in.

Agreed. And the fact that the author switches between subjects that have seemingly little to do with each other (from Kant to Darwin to Freud, for example) doesn't help things much either.


i really like it so far, but i think i'll have to read it about five more times before i can remember anything!

It's the same way with me. I find that taking notes helps though.

[genoveva]

I love that book! I minored in Philosophy, and found Sophie's World a great refresher. I don't remember it jumping around at all. The author seemed to present the philosophers in an easy, chronological order- in my opinion.

[vili]

Ah, Sophie's World... the title brings back a flood of great summer memories from more than a decade ago when I first read it at the age of 12 or so. It got me really interested in philosophy, and by the time I was 14 I had gone through most of the main works in western philosophy -- without understanding much. But at least I took great pride in having read them. ;)

Of course, I didn't realise that I hadn't actually understood much until when I started re-reading (rather sporadically) most of those classics a few years ago. And now I am looking forward to my 30s and 40s when I will once again revisit those texts and discover that my second go with them (which I am still slowly working on) was inadequate in itself. You live, you learn.

In any case, I really enjoyed the humour in Sophie's World, and I remember the story to be both interesting and truly chilling. I also love the ending, but I am of course keeping my lips (keyboard?) sealed for those who haven't finished it yet.

I think I actually ended up re-reading the novel three or four times, and really enjoyed it on each occasion. I also went on to read most of the other novels by Jostein Gaarder that I could lay my hands on. The Solitaire Mystery, perhaps, remains my favourite of them all. Not quite as huge in scope as Sophie's World, The Solitaire Mystery is still truly excellent little "philosophy for kids" type of a book. And the story is great, too.

I must, however, qualify the above by saying that I haven't read it, or any other Gaarder novel, in the past five or six years. So I don't know how I would react to them now. In fact, I think I haven't read anything after 1999's Maya.

By the way, they made a movie as well as a computer CD-ROM out of Sophie's World. You can read about the CD-ROM here: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1010

[SummerSolstice]

They made us read this in fifth grade in an accelerated learning program. I have never forgiven them for it. It's just my personal feeling, but that book irritated the snot outta me. I guess it doesn't help that I don't have a lot of tolerance for philosophy anyway...

[MondayFairchild]

Oh wow, Sophie's World. I remember reading that around three years ago. I agree, it IS interesting, and it took me wholly by surprise, because I didn't expect that reading it would make me feel as if I WAS taking lessons from a teacher. The long list of philosophers did overwhelm me too; I even felt the need for notes just to keep track of everything, before all of it begins swimming in my head like watery soup. But I finished it eventually, and though it was a bit dizzying, I do feel proud to have emerged from it generally unscathed, with a new outlook on philosophy and thinking.


it's a really interesting book, it's just that it's so much information to take in. i really like it so far, but i think i'll have to read it about five more times before i can remember anything! :D it does make you think, though . . .
I can relate. :D

It helps a lot though. At least now we're not at a total loss during philosophy discussions. :nod:

[mir]

mostly. :D

[~*Dark Faerie*~]

I've just recently been hearing about this book so, I guess I'll just have to read and find out for myself, since it seems either you really love or hate it.

[blacksheep]

i hated that book... hated it. i won't spoil the ending but its... horrible.
if you were to creat your own philosophy, at least make it coherent and without the obvious fallacies such as... no im not spoiling it.

as a philosophical text book which i think it was meant to be to a certain extent, its good. i came in with a teensy bit of knowledge about the people and even so, the ammount of information was overwhelming. it was presented nicely enough for me to finish it in a school week so its not completely horrid. (im still bitter about the horrid ending)

[Nightmare9870]

(im still bitter about the horrid ending)

Yes, I didn't think the ending was all that great either.

[vili]

I must confess that also I originally hated the ending. But somehow on the second and third reading it felt much better. Perhaps because I knew what to expect.

[blacksheep]

I must confess that also I originally hated the ending. But somehow on the second and third reading it felt much better. Perhaps because I knew what to expect.

its not that i didnt know what to expect. the ending was actually quite predictable.

its just... soo... utterly random and illogical and improbable.
especially after how many parts of the book actually made sense, it was dissapointing.
(well, many parts, i said "meep. that's... noo... that dun work.")

and also, i think the book should have covered more stuff about the enlightenment philosophers and the more modern French philosophers. (im not going to attempted spelling them)
those french... tsk tsk. spanish is so much nicer. (frustrated with pronounciation of french. for example, i pronounced Debussy as Debewsee for years until i found out that his name was pronounced more like WC.)

Edit: villi, i actually read bits of sophie's world - the ending and beginning especially many times because we had to read it for class and i finished the book before our class started reading it so after a while, i started forgetting stuff and had to go back through it. the ending wasn't much better. the beginning was. ;P

[vili]

its not that i didnt know what to expect. the ending was actually quite predictable.its just... soo... utterly random and illogical and improbable.
Ok, I won't try to convince you, then. :) I just like how it turns into metafiction, and find the philosophical implications rather interesting -- Sophie and Alberto's escape, after all, is the fulfilment of the philosophical (as well as gnostic) quest that they have been on, yet it appears that while they feel at the end to be fully liberated from Albert's God-like influence, they in fact are not, as they are still part of the world created by Gaarder (and indeed fiction in general). As such, I find the ending in its turning back to both literature and philosophy a fitting coda to the whole philosophy/literature adventure, and one that also begs the question whether there actually is an end to any philosophical investigation.

[Erna]

I read the book twice. And as I didn't know anything about philosophy is was a nice eye-opener. But I didn't really like the story of Sophie herself, I was more interested at the description of the different philosophers and I think it's a good and clear introduction for that.

[blacksheep]

vili, i definitly thought that the whole book, including the ending was thought provoking. there were just some details that made the situation seem... yucky for the lack of a better word.
another thing i hated about sophie was her reactions to the lessons. I mean, I personally thing that she was meant to be a blank canvas because her reactions to everything was "that's cool! i get it!" when (at least in my opinion) the philosophy is completely unreasonable. the thing is that she would never react in such a way since she lives in the 20th century, not the time that the philosophy sprung out of.

The ending sounded almost like a counter argument to Descartes' cogito ergo sum. kind of like the brain in vat but not quite.

(I'm still dissapointed at it for not including more about Descartes and methological skepticism and the more modern secular philosophy)

still, its definately worth reading - especially if you don't have a lot of knowledge about the HISTORY of philosophy. ideas were cool but I'm so "openminded" that I'm extremely closeminded. (does that make sense at all?)

[vili]

Blacksheep, I agree with you that Sophie could probably have been written out as a better character. And the ending, while I keep to my view that it was interesting, was of course somewhat cheap as far as literary conventions go. I also agree with you that it was somewhat disappointing to see almost no 20th century philosophy discussed, and most of the subjects that were treated were given a very shallow treatment in the end.

But I think one must take into account that it is a book written for children and adolescents. When you evaluate it accordingly, I think it is an excellent introduction to philosophy and, as you said, especially to the history of philosophy. In the end, it got at least the 12-year old me reading the big works. :)

But this is, of course, only my most humble opinion. ;)

[dramasnot6]

i only got half way through sophies world....i enjoyed the layout of the book very much. i thought the device of the teenage girl was very clever and symbolic yet the authors explanations seemed slightly bias and strange. also, he might have crammed too much in. im 14 myself and unless this sophie girl is prodigy material i dont see how she could have taken all that in so quickly, most of my friends and i couldnt. those who continued reading it had to re-re-read. but well written nonetheless.im glad youre enjoying it!!! but dont put yourself down! the only way to learn how to discuss and debate is to go for it, even if you are smacked down the first few times you can only get better.

[amanda_isabel]

i finally finished sophie's world a few weeks back.. (yehey!) it was.. informative, and the notes i took while reading hlped me retain a lot of the content but i was kind of disappointed with the ending.. all that philosophical history and that's it?

although i was thinking about it and i didn't know how i would end the story either... maybe the rest of us have ideas??

i also finished gaarder's the solitaire mystery last week.. same philosophical stuff but much lighter to read.. more fantasy. i preferred sophie's world though..

[bookworm57]

I'm reading "Sophie's World"at the moment and I agree with some others that it's a lot to take in on one reading. I find that when I read a book for the first time, I have to let it kind of wash over me, I mean by this that I don't try to understand everything as it happens. In this way, I enjoy the general meaning and outline of the book. Then I read the book again and this time become actively involved by taking notes etc. I really need to spend time with a book in order to get an understanding of it.

[RobinHood3000]

I thought it was okay - the last quarter or third could have done with a lot more editing, because it gets to the point where it's like:

Alberto: "Sub-philosophy overview!!"
Sophie: "Can I have an example?"
Alberto: "Example!"
Sophie: "Okay, I get it now! Next sub-philosophy!!"

It felt like Gaardner was trying to rush to the ending. ~shrug~

[gothic]

sophie's world?well,i must say that's undoubtably a spectacualr introductory book to philosophy!two years back when i decided to give philosophy a particular attention,i went to a bookstore and understanding my interest the shopkeeper recommended me this book and now i think that was one of the few wise decisions i ever made starting the voyage through the ocean of philosophy.am i souding like a nerd?may be,but i cant help it.
all through the book,i felt like I was the little girl who was constantly being exposed to a whole new world(talking about different philosophical views)every few hours as her know-it-all teacher goes on opening window after window before her...it felt really awesome.
actually when i read a book i try to absorb till the very last drop of the gist & juice the book is trying to provide me.and as that book was the very first instrument in my philosophical expedition,i was left with no chance to see it critically.i was so lost in the journey of the history of philosophy that i didn't get enough time to contemplate the rest of the story.:)
this could seem like a one-sided discussion about the book,but i think i have already said what i have to say about it.take care everyone!

[gothic]

(clearing my voice)peeping again!:p
blacksheep,you demanded more about modern philosophy in the book.okay,that's cool.but there are some others who say the book is already crammed with too much information to take in!i heard many ppl screaming about it in here.
and as to sophie's reactions,when i read the book,i placed myself in her place and imagined i had reached that particular time and i tried to think like those philosophers in accordance to their own ages and found myself questioning the same things in the way sophie did.(albeit,sometimes some philosophies seemed worthless,but that's bcause of the contradictions of those with my very own beliefs.)i think,to enjoy the book properly,u have to maintain this condition.

[bibliophile190]

I'll have to check out this book. I must confess, my philosophical knowledge is sparse to the extreme. I'm very wary about reading philosophy for two reasons. One is that it just looks so BORING! The other is that I seem to have a very impressionable mind. I seem incapable of reading an idea without at least partially taking it as gospel truth. I need to learn to understand without necessarily taking up the ideas. Still, I want to read the book now.

[Charles Darnay]

I loved this book for its story and its philosophy. First, it taught me so much about philosophers I had never heard about (I used the book as my intro to philosophy) and it allowed me to dive further into the ones I found interesting.

[DeathAngel]

I dislike the book so much,

though it's historical facts take up some parts of it, they make it into a history book, within a fictional book,
the ending killed me,

or simply put, it confused the hell out of me,
i regret ever wasting my summer time reading it, im not a textbok fan

gr

its cleverly written i must admit, and somewhat interesting,
not my kind of book...

[bookworm57]

I dislike the book so much,

though it's historical facts take up some parts of it, they make it into a history book, within a fictional book,
the ending killed me,

or simply put, it confused the hell out of me,
i regret ever wasting my summer time reading it, im not a textbok fan

gr

its cleverly written i must admit, and somewhat interesting,
not my kind of book...

I have read most of this book (just two more chapters left) and I must agree with you, it is confusing. I'm interested in philosophy and read Sophie's world as part of an introduction to the subject. As you say, the book does contain a lot of facts re: various philosophies etc but having to take in these and at the same time follow the fictional aspects of it just confused me. However, I can see that for some people this approach would have worked well and helped ease them gently into philosophy. For me, the best way to achieve this would be to get straight into reading the actual philosophers, or something like Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" which although (as he is a philosopher himself ) could be biased,should serve to put philosophers into their social and cultural context. I'm glad I have read the book though, as the process has helped me realize the best route for my personal journey.
I don't know your present level of knowledge in this area, but if you do need any help, this forum is the place to be. I am new to philosophy myself and have had some excellent advice from the folks here.
Regards