Sophie's World

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Sophie's World

Looking in her mailbox one afternoon, a fourteen- year- old Norwegian schoolgirl

named Sophie Amundsen finds a surprising white envelope containing a piece of paper.

On it are written two questions: "Who are you?" and "Where did the world come

from?". And at the same time she is also receiving letters for a girl named Hilde Moller

Kang and Sophie also finds a silk red scarf in her bedroom, not belonging to her, but to

this girl Hilde.

The writer is an enigmatic philosopher named Albert Knox and his messenger is his

dog Hermes. Albert Knox's two teasing questions are the beginning of an extraordinary

journey through philosophy from philosophers such as what I have read so far: Thales,

Anaximenes, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxgoras, Democritus, Socrates,

Plato, and Aristotle. Albert Knox, whom Sophie has not met in person or even seen for

that matter, has been inquiring Sophie's mind to fundamental questions that philosophers

have been asking since the dawn of civilization.

Sophie is soon enough enrolled in this correspondence course. Everyday she gets

either a white envelope containing puzzling questions or a brown envelope containing type

written papers teaching her about what philosophy is and explaining to her all these

philosophers and their theories.

Sophie's first lesson in philosophy was, "What is philosophy?". How I

understood what was being said was that philosophy is the examination for beliefs and an

analysis of the basic concepts said in the expression of such beliefs. Philosophy is often

used to mean a set of values and attitudes toward life, nature, and society. Next Sophie

learned about was Thalas. According to Thalas, the origin...

... middle of paper ...

...le, "All humans are mortal" and "All

Greeks are humans" therefore the conclusion is that "All Greeks are mortal". Aristotle

was also trying to say human nature involves a capacity for forming habits, but the habits

the individual choices depends on the individual's culture and personal choices. All

humans beings want happiness, an active realization of their innate capacities, but this

goal can be achieved in a multiplicity of ways. Aristotle argued for the existence of a

divine being described as the Prime Mover, who is responsible for the unity and

purposefulness of nature. The prime mover, GOD, is perfect and therefore the aspiration

of all things in the world, because all things desire to share perfection.

After Sophie finished reading Aristotle felt a need to be orderly, and that she

started to value personal commitment and value judgments.

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