Books @ my Bedside: Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder

Review by Steven Wu.

Sophie's World is a curious book. It is, at its core, a much-simplified but well-written exposition of the history of Western philosophy, covering many of the major thinkers and providing capsule summaries of their major thoughts. But such a description fails to capture all the tricks that Gaarder pulls with this book, for Sophie's World is also a book within a book within a book, a meditation on the free will of fictional characters, a mystery, and a political manifesto.

The chief strength of Gaarder's presentation of philosophy is his ability to draw connections between the different philosophers. So, for instance, Gaarder will trace a line of thought that begins with Aristotle and journeys through Aquinas and many of the more modern philosophers, or he will show that the Existentialists are concerned with issues that the early Christian theologists were also concerned with. In doing so, Gaarder showcases philosophy as a process, one that builds off previous ideas and presents new ones on top of them. Suddenly Marx begins to make sense against his Hegelian background, Simon de Beauvoir starts sounding reasonable against her Existentialist background, and Aquinas's project becomes clear, especially in relation to the Church's relationship to history at the time. Gaarder also provides ample space for Eastern philosophy, pointing out, for example, the parallels between the Buddha and (of all people) David Hume.

Strangely as I have been actively ‘truthseeking’ for some time now it’s only recently that I’ve been turned on to philosophy. This book helped me in that process. It’s a highly readable and enjoyable account of Western philosophy as seen through the eyes of a child being led through the history of ideas by a mysterious stranger. Things get rather weird from time to time as the ‘characters’ in the book take on lives of their own but it’s a great way to get a basic grounding in philosophical thought. Well worth the effort.