Sophie’s World - Review
I’m currently in the process of re-reading Sophie’s World - A novel about the history of philosophy. The first time I read it was as a required reading for my Ph.D. philosophy course. I read it at the cottage sitting in a hammock, greatly enjoyed it, and showed up to class in the fall prepared for discussion.
It is both an interesting and enjoyable. Sophie is contacted by a mysterious philosopher who starts asking her questions like Who are you?, Where does the world come from?, and How can earth and water produce a living frog? While pondering these questions the mysterious philosopher gives Sophie a course on the history of philosophy and Sophie tries to solve the mysteries around her.
As an adult I found the book both fun and informative. The story of Sophie’s life is more then enough to keep your attention and the sections explaining the history of philosophy are well woven into the narrative. Each section of history reads as a conversation more then a text book. While I have yet to hand this book to my son to see if he would read it, the professor who put it on our course reading list tells me that she used to read it out loud to her kids when they were growing up and I have no doubt that it was greatly enjoyed.