Sufi's World: Writing Philosophy in the Context of Fiction

Most of us have the first impression of philosophy is that it is boring, difficult, obscure, and difficult to understand, and many people know knowledge outside of this major and will not prefer philosophy.

How to make philosophy interesting and easy to accept, a Norwegian writer Jostan Judd probably thought of this problem, so he wrote a long novel about the history of Western philosophy, in the form of a novel, through a philosophical mentor to a girl named Sophie to teach philosophical knowledge, revealing the development of the history of Western philosophy. The book is Sophie's World.

It is a novel about the history of philosophy and is one of the hundred classics of the 20th century. In 1994, he won the "German Youth Literature Award" and the "Best Work Award". So how exactly does this book merge an entire history of Western philosophy into a novel?

Sophie is a 14-year-old girl who, like all teenage girls, goes to school, goes to school, and makes friends every day. One day after school, Sophie receives a bizarre postcard with the recipient "Please sophie to pass it on to Hilde."

Sophie felt very strange, she quietly read the letter behind her mother's back, the content of the letter is very strange, about "where do you come from", "who are you" and other very boring questions, but, from this day on, Sophie continued to receive similar letters, although she felt that these questions were incredible, but also could not help but want to understand, to explore.

Sophie is a very clever girl, and she is attracted to solve the mysteries while she is confused, and sometimes she needs to use some of the knowledge she has learned. Talking Hamis, the Major's Cabin, the Magic Mirror, the Postcard, the Albert, the banana peel with birthday wishes written on it, the 10-dollar coin she picked up, and so on, followed by strange things that led Sophie step by step. The truth is really weirder and more bizarre than she thought...

Guided by a mysterious mentor, Albert, Sophie began to ponder the fundamental questions of the masters from ancient Greece to Kant, from Kierkegaard to Freud. These questions and knowledge slowly presented a new world for Sophie. Curiosity drove her to explore step by step, step by step.

Later, Albert finally appeared in front of Sophie and began to teach her the history of philosophy, but the name "Sid" kept appearing around her in incredible ways. Later, Sid also appeared. The truth gradually surfaced, and it turned out that sophie was only a fictional character created by Norwegian Major Albert who worked in the United Nations force in Lebanon to celebrate the birthday of his daughter Hilde, and wrote her story into a philosophical story as a birthday gift for her daughter.

Prompted and helped by her teacher Albert, Sophie gradually realizes that she is only a character in the book, part of Major Abbott's consciousness, and in addition to faithfully completing the task of her protagonist, they begin to fight against God (Major Abbott). With their efforts, the world in the book gradually distorts, becoming strange and difficult to control. Eventually, Albert and Sophie inexplicably escape from the world of the book and come to Sid's world.

"Sophie's World" is a good introductory philosophical reading of Western philosophy, the protagonist Sophie, a curious and energetic 14-year-old girl, the reader can easily integrate into the protagonist Sophie's role, follow her curiosity from the most basic knowledge, to explore Western philosophy. Sophie's teacher, Albert, is a teacher with a lot of philosophical beliefs, he is wise in his thinking, never rushes to judge when things happen, is good at thinking, and can well arouse Sophie's curiosity and guide her to explore, to learn, to think. At the same time, he also cares about Sophie and hopes that she can learn well.

Cramming the entire history of Western philosophy into a novel sounds fascinating. The whole book unfolds in the form of a novel, bringing the reader into the world of philosophy step by step, but although it is entry-level, it is philosophy after all, and the knowledge is not so difficult and boring.

As the plot progresses, Sophie receives more and more knowledge, and the reader is also exposed to those philosophical knowledges, from Socrates to Sartre's existentialism, from ancient Greek civilization to rationalism and empiricism... There are many more difficult to remember and difficult to read names of Western philosophers, but it is still an entry-level and widely accepted philosophical book, because this book is not an academic work, not to discuss a particular trend of thought or history in philosophy, but to try to make an overview of each school, or it can be said that it is an introduction to Western philosophy, which can build a solid framework for the history of Western philosophy for the reader.