The World of Philosophy: A Book about Sophie's World by Yasmeen Banat

Yasmeen Banat

2

The World of Philosophy

The World of Philosophy

3

Yasmeen Banat

4

The World of Philosophy

The World of Philosophy

A book about Sophie’s World.

Yasmeen Banat

5

Yasmeen Banat

6

The World of Philosophy

Table of Contents The Analogy ...the best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions…

1

...what came first-the chicken or the “idea” chicken…

4

Greece

Two Cultures … he who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth…

6

The Renaissance ...what did you say? You called me Hilde!...

8

Hilde …true enlightenment is to man like sunlight to the soul…

11

The Present ...to exist is to create your own life…

14

Index

18

Questions and Topics for Discussion

19

7

Yasmeen Banat

8

The World of Philosophy

Author’s Note This ‘Autonomy Unit’ surrounds the concept of making independent choices and thus provides the students of Grade 12 with the book and text type of their choice for this task connected to eight themes (Index). Thus, in this book, I will be analyzing the novel Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, originally written in Norwegian in 1952 then translated into English by Paulette Mollr in 1994. I will specifically analyse how Gaarder employs the concepts of perspective, representation and transformation and the devices of character, language, plot and events to educate the reader on the history of philosophy, while making connections to the eight themes: a global issue (beliefs, values and education), a concept (perspective through representation leading to transformations), literary theories (poststructuralism and moral criticism), non literary visual texts ( paintings), a world event (Beirut bombing ), a social media post (Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini), subjects (mathematics, psychology and global politics) and theory of knowledge (imagination). Simultaneously, this book will act as pastiche to the novel of Sophie’s World through format and content.

9

Yasmeen Banat

10

The World of Philosophy

The Analogy ...the best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions...

Sophie Amundsen is on her way home from school, experiencing the final moments as her ordinary self. The mysterious philosopher replaces her old life with an enlightened, multi-dimensional world through first proposing questions about existence and the origin of this world, provoking thoughts and questions in Sophie’s mind while simultaneously doing so in the reader’s, then by having discussions and experiencing the embodiment of the proposed concepts of these discussions. This section introduces the subject of philosophy and how it originated (myths) as well as the important influential figures including Hales, Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus and Parmenides, Heraclitus and Empedocles (natural philosophers).

Jostein Gaarder begins the novel by creating the analogy of the top hat: To summarize briefly: A white rabbit is pulled out of a top hat. Because it is an extremely large rabbit, the trick takes many billions of years. All mortals are born at the very tip of the rabbit’s fine hairs, where they are in a position to wonder at the impossibility of the trick. But as they grow older they work themselves ever deeper into the fur. And there they stay. They become so comfortable they never risk crawling back up the fragile hairs again. Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people

1

Yasmeen Banat nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. (20) Gaarder first uses this analogy to explain to Sophie the concept of philosophy and philosophical questions. Throughout the novel, though, the purpose of this analogy changes to become a reminder rather than an explanation. This is one of the first examples of the concept of perspective changing through representation leading to transformation, where the perspective of the reader on philosophy is changing through the influence of Sophie and her thoughts, leading to a transformation in the beliefs of the reader.

Because of the manner in which Gaarder chooses to portray the character of Sophie, Sophie and ‘Sophie's world’ is really just a character who represents the reader. This is highlighted through the inner dialogue where Gaarder writes Sophie’s thought process as a reflection of what the readers thoughts are, or at least what they are intended to be. For example, Gaarder writes, “She decided that philosophy was not something you can learn; but perhaps you can learn to think philosophically.” (42) where he refers to Sophie. In this case, the global issue of beliefs, values and education is reflected, where Gaarder uses the character of Sophie to influence the readers beliefs and values, and encourage them to try to learn how to think philosophically.

In addition to the use of the analogy, the character Sophie and her inner dialogue, Gaarder also utilizes postcards throughout the novel to differentiate or indicate the ‘lessons’ being taught by him. These postcards are sent by an anonymous philosopher who the reader is not formally introduced to until page 73. Prior to this introduction, this philosopher is a

2

The World of Philosophy mysterious man sending postcards to Sophie. This relationship is a reflection of the relationship between Gaarder and the readers of his novel, where he teaches them through his novel rather than postcards. Another representational or symbolic character is the mother of Sophie who reflects the adults the philosopher (Gaarder) describes. This can be seen when Sophie’s mother replies to Sophie’s philosophical question with parental concerns on her wellbeing and supposed influences, reflecting adults’ reactions or perspective on philosophy.

3

Yasmeen Banat

Greece ...what came first-the chicken or the “idea” chicken...

More questions are posed, more theories established, new individuals introduced: Democritus and his atom theory, fate and medicine, Socrates and Athens, Plato and his world of ideas, Aristotle and logic, and Hellenism and the helinsitic kingdoms. Gaarder introduces and discusses these topics through transitioning from postcards to cassettes, where Alberto Knox - the philosopher - gives Sophie a tour around Athens 2,400 year ago where she is then questioned by Plato as requested by Knox. This is one of the many instances where the reader is provoked to reflect upon broad questions through the use of dialogue between the philosopher and Sophie. For example, Gaarder writes, “Welcome to Athens, Sophie,” he said in a gentle voice. He spoke with an accent. “My name is Plato and I am going to give you four tasks. First you must think over how a baker can bake fifty absolutely identical cookies. Then you can ask yourself why all horses are the same. Next you must decide whether you think that man has an immortal soul.

And finally you must say whether men and women are equally sensible. Good luck!” (77-78 ) Through writing these questions in the form of dialogue, Gaarter proposes these questions to the reader, causing them to reflect and attempt at finding answers. This is one form Gaarder’s education takes in his novel.

4

The World of Philosophy Another form of an education tool used by Gaarder is subtitles within the postcards. This is the content of a textbook on philosophy being placed in the form of an educational, fictional novel. Examples of these subtitles are ‘Mysticism’ (135) or ‘Ethics’ (114) where the information being taught is divided by subject to ease the process of learning for ‘Sophie’ (the reader). Another format option which creates division in the content of the novel is font. When discussing real events, a ‘regular’ font is used, whereas when reading the postcards, more ‘academic’ fonts are used, establishing a clear division between the academic aspect of this novel, and fictional one.

Later in the novel, postcards are no longer used, but rather dialogue. This is another example of the process of transformation, where Gaarder chooses to no longer distinguish between the fictional and educational aspect of the novel, but rather to merge them. This blurs the lines between reality and fiction, encouraging the reader to no longer perceive philosophy conceptually but rather in actuality. This is another tool which transforms the process of educating the reader through increasing the personal engagement, and thus the comprehension of the reader.

5

Yasmeen Banat

Two Cultures … he who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth…

It’s Thursday, May 17, Norway's national day, when Sophie ventures into discovering the identity of the mysterious philosopher, but instead comes across more postcards. These postcards are addressed to Hilde from her father, a United Nations Battalion, who expresses his excitement towards his daughter’s birthday. But who is this Hilde?

The philosopher is not surprised, but also not satisfied with Sophie’s attempt at discovering his identity, yet continues his communication with her through postcards. In this section, the reader is introduced to the two cultures: the Indo-Europeans and the Semites, which although classified as cultures, are significantly influenced by different religions. Gaarder is not only teaching the reader about the different philosophies of these two religions and their influence in this section, but also expressing the importance of not being superficial: rather you should appreciate and understand the importance of your historical roots. Gaarder directly encourages this message when he writes: Sophie sat for a while staring into the garden through the little holes in the hedge. She was beginning to understand why it was so important to know about her historical roots...She herself was just an ordinary person. But if she knew her historical roots, she would be a little less ordinary.

(161)

6

The World of Philosophy In the chapter titled “The Postcards” beginning page 138, Gaarder uses the postcards Sophie discovers when searching for the philosopher as an introduction of Hilde and Hilde’s father to the readers. These postcards also introduce the United Nations and their involvement in the Lebanese war which is where Hilde’s father is serving. Gaarder communicates this when he writes, My dear child, What I would like best would be to send you my secret thoughts with a white dove. But they are all out of white doves in Lebanon. If there is anything this war-torn country needs, it is white doves. I pray the UN will truly manage to make peace in the world some day. (143) This relates to the recent event of the explosion that occurred in Bierut on August 4th, 2020. Seventeen years after the publication of this book, the wish of Hilde’s father has still not become a reality, for the UN has not succeeded in making peace in the world, but has attempted to provide aid as it has done following the Beirut incident.

7

Yasmeen Banat

The Renaissance ...what did you say? You called me Hilde!...

The reader moves on in time, discovering the The Baroque period of French aristocracy and the Court of Versailles and the influential individuals of this period: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), John Locke (1632-1704), David Hume (1711-1776) and George Berkeley (1685-1753). Throughout the novel, Gaarder chooses to teach philosophy in chronological order, enabling an objectivity to be established during the historical aspect of the lessons, and a subjectivity to be created during the fictional aspect of the novel.

The Renaissance means ‘rebirth’ and refers to “the rich cultural development that began in the late fourteenth century” (Gaarder, page 194). This is the age where the concepts of humanism, determinism and empiricism, which are still taught today in the Theory of Knowledge class, were introduced. Gaarder introduces these unfamiliar topics through making references to more familiar ones to the readers. For example, Gaarder writes, “The theater of the Baroque period was more than an art form. It was the most commonly employed symbol of the time.”

“A symbol of what?”

“Of life, Sophie.” (225)

8

The World of Philosophy Followed by further inquiry my Sophie, making the connection to a familiar topic: “Did Shakespeare live in the Baroque period?”

“He wrote his greatest plays around the year 1600, so he stands with one foot in the Renaissance and the other in the Baroque. Shakespeare's work is full of passages about life as a theater.” (225) This example reflects Gaarder’s use of familiar references to increase the comprehension and the understanding of the reader. This example also connects with both the subject of Language and Literature and the literary texts of Shakespeare taught within this subject.

Another subject this section of the novel connects to is Mathematics. This connection is created by Gaarder in a similar manner as the Language and Literature: through making familiar references to the reader as a device for both connection and comprehension. For example, Gaarder refers to Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics Geometrically Demonstrated, followed by an explanation between mathematics and philosophy through dialogue between Sophie and Knox: “Ethics- geometrically demonstrated?”

“It may sound a bit strange to us. In philosophy, ethics means the study of moral conduct for living a good life. This is also what we mean when we speak of the ethics of Socrates or Aristotle, for example. It is only in our own time that ethics has more or less become reduced to a set of rules for living without treading on other people’s toes.”

(246)

9

Yasmeen Banat In addition to making references to familiar topics, Gaarder also intentionally refers to previously taught subjects. This tool encourages the reader to think more conceptually and create connections between the different topics being taught throughout the novel.

During the period of the Renaissance, the reader also discovers through Gaarder explaining the famous ‘I think therefore I am’ (Descerats, 1637) the importance of nature during this era: One can say without exaggeration that Descrates was the father of modern philosophy. Following the heady rediscovery of man and nature in the Renaissance, the need to assemble contemporary thought into one coherent philosophical system again presented itself. (231) This emphasis on nature was expressed through art. One of the most famous artists of this time was the French Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) who was best known for his landscape paintings. Below is the landscape oil painting known as “Paysage Pastoral” with 59 cm × 83 cm dimensions.

10

The World of Philosophy

Hilde …true enlightenment is to man like sunlight to the soul...

It's six o’clock on a bright Friday morning, June 15, 1990, when Hilde awakens in the old captain’s house outside of Lillesand. It’s her fifteenth birthday: her first day of adult life. Her father had promised to be home from Lebanon on Midsummer Eve, but his gift would not wait that long. Hilde discovers a large ring binder after untying the red silk ribbon and undoing the blue paper. Was this her present?

Gaarder has now transitioned to Hilde’s world, where the reader is no longer reading about Sophie, but rather about Hilde reading about Sophie. Confused? Both perspective and imagination are required to comprehend this switch. What once was a novel about the philosopher (Gaarder) explaining philosophy to Sophie (the reader) has now become a story of Hilde’s father (Gaarder) explaining the history of philosophy to his daughter through her birthday present: a story about Sophie’s World.

Gaarder changes and transforms the reader’s perspective in a matter of pages, but this change does not occur for the sake of entertainment or confusion, but rather for the purpose of further educating the reader.

Gaarder is no longer writing the literal concepts of philosophy and explaining them through analogies and comparisons, but is instead turning them into actual embodiments. For example, on page 292, Gaarder writes, Berkeley was a philosopher who denied the existence of a material world beyond the human mind. That was certainly very strange, one had to admit. But it was not easy

11

Yasmeen Banat to disprove such claims, either. As regards Sophie, it fitted very well. After all, Hilde’s father was responsible for her “sense perception.”

This example both reflects the theory of knowledge concept of imagination in absorbing the two dimensions (Sophie’s world and Hilde’s world), but also the role of sense perception in this process.

Throughout this section topics from different subjects are made. A connection to psychology is made when Gaarder mentions Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution as well as Sigmund Freud and his view on the conscious and subconscious of the human mind in the chapters titled ‘Darwin’ (399-422) and Freud (423-440). A connection to global politics is made in the chapter ‘Marx’ (381-398) when Hilde continues reading the book her father gifted her, where she learns (through Sophie and the philosopher) about Karl Marx (Communist Manifesto, 1848).

This leads to the introduction of different movements such as individualism and collectivism introduced through Sophie experiencing the two perspectives after consuming the substance of a blue and red bottle. In this example, Gaarder is making reference to the story of Alice in Wonderland when he writes “There was red liquid in one and blue in the other. The label on the red bottle read DRINK ME, and on the blue one the label read DRINK ME TOO” (370) which is another instance that reflects the theory of knowledge concept of imagination. In this section, Gaarder also introduces the concept of Romanticism.

It had been said that Romanticism was Europe’s last common approach to life. It started in Germany, arising as a reaction to the Enlightenment’s unequivocal emphasis on

12

The World of Philosophy reason. After Kant and his cool intekkectuakism, it was as if German youth heaved a sigh of relief...The new catchwords were ‘feeling,’ ‘imagination,’ ‘experience,’ and ‘yearning.’

(342) Romanticism can be thought of as Europe's last real epoch encompassing poetry, philosophy, art, science and music. In today’s day and age, Romanticism has been reinvented into ‘New Romanticism,’ and is particularly relevant in the fashion industry. For example, the social media account named Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini is an Italian brand which ‘celebrates the era of New Romanticism under the creative direction of Lorenzo Serafini.’ One of Serafini’s designs can be seen in the left portrait, which is similar to that of a traditional Romantic dress of the 1830s in the right portrait.

13

Yasmeen Banat

The Present ...to exist is to create your own life...

Knox arrives at Cafe Pierra after the “academic quarter of an hour” (Gaarder, 448) where he gives Sophie her last lesson on ‘Our Own Time’ (441). In this final section, Gaarder continues to educate the reader, but in an unfamiliar manner. He writes, Obviously it would not be very appropriate for a real philosopher to say they are all equally bad. But I don’t mind saying that all these subjects together possibly chart a fairly detailed map of a landscape that does not exist. And there are many ‘figments of the imagination’ here that Hume would have committed to the flames. Many of those books do not contain so much as one iota of genuine experience. (460) In this example, Gaarder is reflecting defiance from a structure he created in his novel. More specifically, Gaarder is deviating from his objective manner of teaching, to a subjective, biased manner where he expresses his opinion on mainstream books about astrology or meditation which he refers to as “figments of the imagination”(460). This relates to the literary theory of poststructuralism which can be defined as a type of literary critique that judges the literature based on the extent of deviance from structure (of any kind) towards ‘chaos concepts.’ Furthermore, this relates to the literary theory of moral criticism which is a type of literary critique that judges the value of a the literature based on its moral lessons or ethical teachings.

14

The World of Philosophy Because this novel is focused on philosophical and ethical concerns within society, and because it acts as an educational experience for the reader on such subjects, this novel can be said to have a high moral value. It teaches and encourages philosophical ways of thinking as opposed to what Gaarder refers to in his original analogy as adults who “accept the world as a matter of course.” Gaarder also expresses, “My concern is that you do not grow up to be one of those people who take the world for granted” (18). He then goes on to write Sadly it is not only the force of gravity we get used to as we grow up. The world itself becomes a habit in no time at all.

It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world. And in doing so, we lose something central- something philosophers try to restore.

For somewhere insides ourselves, something tells us that life is a huge mystery. This is something we once experienced, long before we learned to think the thought.

(19) In the final chapters of Sophie’s World, the reader enters a new world where borders are no longer restraining them, and where they experience travelling from one dimension to the other: ‘the world of ideas.’ Gaarder also uses the last chapters to explain ‘The Big Bang’ (498) surrounding the theory of how this universe came to existence. By this point in the novel, the subjects being taught are not longer conceptual, but rather actual in nature.

As Mrs. Melissa Kandido says “once embedded, accepted and utilized, it is no longer outside of ourselves but within our mindset.” Ultimately, after reading this novel, the intention of Gaarder to educate the reader and

15

Yasmeen Banat encourage them to think philosophically is apparent through his use of the concepts of perspective, representation and transformation as well as his utilization of literary devices such as characters, language, plot and events.

Whether this education has lived to its expectations is only for the reader to decide, for as Gaarder writes “Although philosophical questions concern us all, we do not all become philosophers…” (19).

16

The World of Philosophy

17

Yasmeen Banat

Index Global Issue beliefs, 2 values, 2 education, 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 15 Concept perspective, 2, 3, 11, 16 representation, 2, 16 transformation, 2, 5, 11, 16 Literary Theory post-structuralism, 14 Non-Literary Visual Text painting, 9, 13 World Event Beirut explosion, 7 Social Media Thread Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, 13 Class language and literature, 9 global politics, 12 psychology, 12 mathematics, 9 Theory of Knowledge concepts (humanism, determinism and empiricism), 8 imagination, 11, 12 sense perception, 12

18

The World of Philosophy

Questions and Topics for Discussion 1. Based on what has been written about the global issue of beliefs, values and education in Sophie’s World, how does this book reflect this same global issue?

2. Did your perspective change during the process of reading this book? If so, how? If not, why?

3. How would you apply the literary theory of post-structuralism to this book (be specific)?

4. What did you learn from the non-literary visual texts that you would not have otherwise learned in this book?

5. What recent world event could connect to this book? How? 6. Other than the connection made in this book about the social media post of Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and romanticism, what other connection could be made? Hint: think about some of the mentioned concepts.

7. Which subject-related references were you already familiar with?

Which aspects would you be interested to research further?

8. As you may know, Theory of Knowledge is based on philosophy, but based on what you have learned about philosophy in Sophie’s World, how would you say it is taught differently?

19