Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder is one of those “gift” books that arrives and promptly becomes an introductory text to philosophy for teachers and parents – not just for children, but for high school and undergrad philosophy classes everywhere.
I still find it on the reading list for Philosophy 100 classes in colleges (it was sold for a while at my college, for example), although it’s probably dropping in popularity since it was published back in 1994.
There’s been dozens of “introduction” books that have flooded the market in response to its best-seller status (I’m thinking of Nigel Warburton’s Philosophy: The Basics“; all the Philosophy Gym and Files books by Stephen Law; anything on the best-seller lists by Alain de Botton; and What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel.
Pop-culture philosophy books do sell, they can be targeted at the younger years and Sophie’s World is one of the more early popular examples that has paved the way for others. I even got the Sophie’s Journal: Book of Days back in 1999 and chopped up the pages to turn the attractive philosophical descriptions into pretty information banners for my classrooms.
One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
As a book, does it hold up to re-reading long after it was published and I picked it up as a must-read bestseller?
At 400 pages, this could be condemned as an “Ikea” approach to philosophy, by jamming in as many references and concepts as it can, with synopses of the world’s major philosophers and concepts. Technical terms are tackled deftly, the selection of thinkers is narrowed down, and links to the early pre-Socratics all the way to existentialists are maintained to ensure a sense of history.
Which is kind of the point of this book – it’s a gentle philosophy history book more than anything else, and the wide-eyed Scandinavian Alice-in-Wonderland Sophie doesn’t really develop much as a character, nor does the owlish Alberto and his wisdom-from-on-high (although that could be due to the twist in revealing their true “identities”). Some omissions include the thinkers Nietzsche, Heidegger and (as Sophie herself points out) many women who have contributed to and often been overshadowed in philosophy.
Since “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” are perenial questions, this book can serve as a useful text for young people interested in those questions – although I’d be surprised if it’s kept in mind as a gift, as it's been many years since it's been published. Hopefully it will remain in print and suggested as additional reading on college philosophy courses.
Some other links about the book:
New York Time Review: “To Mr. Gaarder’s credit, many of these lectures are lucid summaries of difficult thought. But many are canned to provide intellectual quick fixes. Democritus’ atoms resemble Lego blocks; Plato’s ideas are cookie molds. Mr. Gaarder’s tour through the past of Western thought will perhaps have the good effect of encouraging some readers to seek out the real thing. But I suspect that most will be content with the bus ride; if it’s Tuesday, this must be Descartes.”
Sophie’s World Chapter Outlines
Sophie’s World Notes (Doc)
