Sophie's World
Ratings232
Average rating3.7
I'm writing this review around four years after my entire German class DNF the book, so this review will be more of a mini rant than a serious review.
The 16 year old sophomore that was me, did not enjoy this book. I find and have always found philosophy interesting, but in my opinion, the way this book tries to teach philosophy is boring. I find that it tried to force a plot between the lessons/lectures to appeal to a younger audience, but my entire class (10-12 grades) struggled to read this book (the only reason why we were even reading this book is because it was an AP class and my teacher wanted us to read a “serious/mature” book in German).
On the day we decided that this book was either a) too boring for us or b) too advanced for some of the students to understand in German, everybody concluded that the dog was the only thing worthwhile about this book.
I'm not sure if I would find this book more interesting now that I've “matured” or if I'd enjoy it more if I read it in English instead of German, since unfortunately as a native speaker, reading German is annoyingly difficult for me.
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder is a fantastic novel, "A book about the history of philosophy," that we shall learn about through the letters Sophie receives. Sophie is a 14-year-old who will continue to explore philosophy after receiving letters. As Sophie reads each letter, she board on a journey through time, uncovering the ideas of great philosophers. The novel not only introduces readers to key philosophical concepts but also encourages them to reflect on their own understanding of the world around them.
I finished this masterpiece. It's kinda like a textbook with little comedy sprinkled at the start and the end, some enthusiasm around philosophy, history and science injected. The plot and the dialog kinda sucks and the book itself points out that it's one huge monologue.
Sophie for the most part just replies in snarky ways or just generic replies “Yes.” “Tell me more.” “Let's look into it.”. I don't remember the exact words but it's basically that and then a guy tells her a bunch of simplified philosophy which is not even a good way to learn it if we are being honest. The way we learn is with details and brushing off large time periods without much care won't help the memory. I was somewhat familiar with these philosophers because I read a similar book before, but without the fiction, literally “the philosophy book”. There are definitely parts I kinda looked over just because there was so much surface information coming in.
But I dunno, I appreciate it and probably need to read a couple more books like this, not this same one tho. It would probably be even better if I just read the philosopher's themselves. I liked hearing Sattre's influence, I really disliked his first work, but since he made such an impact his later work must definitely be better, I hope.
But really why you would appreciate this is the philosophical urge to invent terms, the love of complaining to mom, the white crow books of alternative universes. Mom has learned that people cannot fly, but she doesn't understand anything really. I am in possession of some philosophical allegations.
I like the feminist tone despite the book containing mostly men, it's like hey look at those men now you can do better, you go girl. I love the mention of the one and only Simone De Beavoir even though the book technically could have mentioned lots of other women philosophers and more eco philosophers. This is not that focused on current times tho and I suppose the author wanted to cover the essentials which they did.
I am not sure why I want to rate this textbook 5 stars, but I really have no reason not to. Maybe that party at the end was too lavish and opulent... hmmm... consumerism much?? K, but like it's a good book, there's information that I need to encounter, some thoughts and history explained in a way I should have probably encountered by this point which only speaks to my ignorance about these topics. But you know twitter or now X exists and I am learning so you see who is winning. Did I do good dad? Thanks.
After reading this I feel such a mission and debt to environmentalists because I really see that their books and all if you look up aren't really taking that off when the information they provide is so invaluable. I wanna know about philosophy and science, but all the eco stuff... I should look into it.
I struggled to continue this book a bit because I lost a friend while reading it and that put me into a self-reflective spiral and what my life means which this sorta is about. I don't appreciate Darwin and his gene spreading philosophy, but the other thoughts by the greats I love. I think they were a bit envious of me branching out into science and not into occult stuff which I love because there's a chapter here on not believing new age philosophies and what they try to sell with all the religions.
Quotes:
““You haven't gotten yourself mixed up with drugs, have you, dear?”
Sophie was just about to laugh, but she understood why the question was being brought up now.
“Are you nuts?” she said. “That only makes you duller'.””
“Only priests and monks read the Bible because it only existed in Latin. But during the Renaissance, the Bible was translated from Hebrew and Greek into national languages.”
“She ended with a paragraph on the fact that everything people do can be used for good or evil. Good and evil are like a white and a black thread that make up a single strand.
Sometimes they are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to untangle them.”
I really like this last one. Counterpoints. Twilight. Ying, yang. It haunts my thoughts lately.
Getting a teenager hooked on to ideas of Philosophy, that too diligently wanting to follow its steady arc chronologically, is always going to be an uphill task. But not if you believe in the imaginative power of ideas yourself; certainly not if you figure an ingenious way out to break away from the classroom tediousness, to take those ideas with you and sail across in a boat ride, and then to hold them back just enough until you start again, and even more so if you know how to get dogs deliver them mail for you.
Sophie's World is a fresh way to look at the history of thoughts thought by the most genius minds over the millennia. The innovation in telling the history enjoins the imagination of telling a story; the story of Sophie Amundsen who, could it be argued, is more real than her real counterpart.
The coming of age for Sophie involves the creative play of splitting or rather multiplying her self ... to evolve into her indubitable double. Is it Hilde reading Sophie or the other way round, turned frantically over the pages, truly amounts to the best bits of the book. The postmodernist blend of fiction and history enables the flight of philosophy which the readers, much like Sophie, would be comfortable to take.
About the ‘philosophy' as such, it would be better to hark as much at those other counterparts of the Western world. That the narration jars towards the final scenes is probably an outcome of the literary pull of closing down the circle that deserves to start all over again.
One cannot complain much albeit when at your helm is a girl who knows what is she dealing with and who is firmly taking steps to affirm her journey.
This was fantastic, I didn't expect it to be what it was or go there way it did and I was pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful and I had to put it down a few times and just look out the window to let the information soak into my little pea brain. I'd recommend this to every single person on Earth if only just to help them expand their own understanding of their consciousness and their place in the universe.
My only problem (which is my own flaw) is that I think the translation doesn't 100% match up. I think if I was able to read it in Norwegian a lot of the humour between Sophie and her peers would have made more sense, there were a few bits of dialogue I couldn't quite understand and I think it was a translation/cultural gap but that's my own fault for only speaking one language
Sophie's World is a really good book. If only there was no Sophie in it. I'll tell you why.
This is a crash course on Western philosophy for beginners. I had no idea about this. This was just a random book I picked up. And I don't regret it.
Sophie's world is a gateway to western philosophy. Each chapter in the book is about a particular school of thought, arranged chronologically moving swiftly from one to next. We get a crisp and clear yet not too extensive idea of how each branch of philosophy was formed and what it put forward.
All this is explained, as conversation between a 14 year old Norwegian girl, Sophie and a ‘philosopher' Alberto Knox. I'd recommend anybody who has the slightest interest in philosophy, or spends enough time inside their head to give this book a go.
I found the chapters up to Descartes thought-provoking; the few chapters after that went totally above my head, let alone provoke any thoughts.(Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Bjerkely, Enlightenment, Kant - was awesome, romanticism, Hegel, Kierkegaard) My brain started picking it back up at Marxism. Yes, this book reads almost like a textbook. But as someone who has to read even more boring topics, I could wade through the tough pages. The language is easy, but the concepts were too complicated for my understanding at times.
‘Remind yourself that you are only living a miniscule part of all nature's life. You are part of an enormous whole.'
‘I think I see what you mean...‘
‘Can you manage to feel it as well? Can you perceive all of nature at one time-the whole universe, in fact-at single glance?'
‘I doubt it. Maybe I need some lenses.'
‘I don't only mean the infinity of space. I mean the eternity of time as well. Once upon a time, thirty thousand years ago there lived a little boy in the Rhine valley. He was a tiny part of nature, a tiny ripple on an endless sea. You too, Sophie, you too are living a tiny part of nature's life. There is no difference between you and that boy.'
The rationalists had almost forgotten the importance of experience, and the empiricists had shut their eyes to the way our own mind influences the way we see the world
Dear Hilde, if the human brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it. Love, Dad.
Wanted to read this book when I was around 18 years old but never came around to it. Read it now to see what I missed. I truly would have loved it at that age. Still a good read now. But more for the opportunity to think who would I have been if I read it then? Who am I really?
This is book about philosophy. I like philosophy. Therefore, I like this book.
The majority of the text could have been extracted into a proper ‘Introduction to the History of Philosophy' book. It is well written, it covers a large span of time in a short amount of space, and as such, it is bound to make generalizations and possible a few mischaracterizations in order to get a make a point.
I would like to empathize that I would never recommend a history book on a field of study as the first point of entry for anyone interested in that particular field. Also, because of the variety of topics covered, it is hard for everyone like every part of the book. There are some philosophers and even periods of history that I have no interest, still I had to endure a few pages dedicated to the topic.
That said, some people might, and have, made of this a successful first contact with philosophy.
By the way, the author favors a christian view in some parts of the history of philosophy, that might upset a few readers.
The fiction part of the book is passable. Intriguing at first but less so from the middle to the end.
I have had this book for about 15 years and finally read it. A great overview of philosophy geared toward teenagers. Well written and an interesting storyline to present the information.
Fascinating read, but my head started hurting somewhere around Kant. Looking forward to reviewing the later sections and maybe watching the movie, too.
I read this book like a homework for high school and the first time I read, I thought it was really boring. The parts that contained the history of philosophy were a extremeley boring!!! but the story of Sophie and her adventures were fine.
