Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder

 

I’ve been having an interest in western philosophy from some time. However, forays into the subject have been ad-hoc, with more emphasis on ideas of existentialism. It was with an objective  to understand the development of philosophy more that I purchased Russel’s History of Western Philosophy, but that was about 6 years back. That book is a grand exercise in reading, and I felt that maybe, a more overall high level view was necessary, before one does a cover to cover reading of that great book.  It was in such a background that I thought that Gaarder’s book might well serve as a launching pad to read these ideas. And a launching pad it is, as I started on Russel’s book halfway through Gaarder’s. Of course, Russel will take a longer time to complete, but it sure did give a good platform.

Overall, Sophie’s World can be looked from two angles – a primer for a more thorough course in philosophy (my 16 year old son has started reading it too), plus as novel – in fact that’s the garb it dresses in formally. Until the last 40-50 pages, it fails miserably as a novel, in my opinion. But Gaarder has enough tricks in his imagination to give us a vivid finish to the novel, with the book’s real characters and the imaginary one’s switching roles in their bravado.

   stack of books to read

For me, as already stressed, this book served its purpose wonderfully, as a primer for reading philosophy. To that end, am really glad that I picked it up. I have a long list of books that I’ve had false starts with, but now I have more reason to read them within their context, with some basis to understand how a certain thought came to be at a historical period of time. For that, am glad I read this book, despite that fact that Gaarder may have targeted a much younger readership when he wrote this.

As a novel, even upon reaching three fourths of it, I felt what a farce, and how contrived a plot it was, just so that it could  carry out the author’s objective. Yet, Gaarder manages to find a white crow and some imaginative twists to salvage his book’s outer form. So much so, by the time I closed the book,  I had to concede, maybe Gaarder did do sufficiently – maybe just – to keep claim to his work as a novel, however much it’ll serve as an introduction to western philosophy -  from the times if the very early Greeks, right until Sartre, and then neo-Marxism.

Who should read this book ? If you’re only a lover of fiction, I do not recommend this book. The book has long passages on the development of western thought, and a lover of fiction only, may find herself wondering “what am I doing here?”. But if you have even a passing interest in philosophy – what did early democracy look like ? How did Christianity get absorbed in the then existing thought, and then took its main form ? 

e.g.

He became a Christian first, but the Christianity of St. Augustine is largely influenced by Platonic ideas. And therefore, Sophie, therefore you have to understand that there is no dramatic break with Greek philosophy the minute we enter the Christian Middle Ages. Much of Greek philosophy was carried over to the new age through Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine.

What the Renaissance was and how it can, in a way, be looked upon as girl reaching her 15^th birthday, in mid-June in a Scandinavian country ? and how philosophy developed through the years to The Enlightenment, Rationalism to the historical materialism of Marx, and so forth – by all means this book can be so much rewarding for you. 

Rating: ****
Genre: Novel/ Western Philosophy
Originally published in Norwegian in 1991
First translated to English in 1995 by Paulette Moller
(this English edition - 2015)