The world of Sufi... A novel by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder.

This novel has achieved global fame and has been translated into more than 53 languages worldwide, and has achieved sales reaching 3 million copies.

The novel tells the history of philosophy through a small girl named Sophie, who is taught the science of philosophy by a mysterious man through letters sent to her mailbox.

Of course, the novel talks about many philosophers and sheds light on their ideas, and it is considered an easy starting point for those who want to get to know the history of philosophy. But to be honest, I don't like philosophy and I didn't fully integrate with the book and couldn't finish it, although it is written in a smooth and charming way.

Maybe I need to give it another try at another time.

If one day I become a parent, I will give this book as a gift to my child on his/her 15th birthday. :)

This book holds a special place in my heart. It contains valuable lessons and wisdom that I believe every 15-year-old should know. It can help them navigate through the challenges and opportunities that come their way during this crucial stage of their lives.

Even if I forget to give it to them, please remind me. Because I truly want my child to have this book and benefit from its contents. It will be a precious gift that they can cherish and refer to throughout their lives.

Reading it again was beneficial for me because I remembered the impact it had on me when I first read it. It made me question myself and my beliefs so much and also increased my interest in philosophy.

I had forgotten some parts, and it was good to be reminded. There were also some parts that I didn't understand well the previous time, but this time I did.

I'm glad I read it again.

An interesting little metafiction—at times, meta-metafiction—for aspiring baby philosophers. It offers a digestible, sweet narrative of the history of philosophy, much like many actual philosophers who employ dialogues to explain ideas.

At times, it’s pretty adorable, and I truly wish I’d read this in high school. However, other times, it goes off on tangents, hammers its points home a little too aggressively, and exudes a bit too much glee over its own cleverness.

Sophie Amundsun, a clever fourteen-year-old, is full of wonder about life, death, and identity. She receives a note in the mail that asks “Who are you?” and then “Where does the world come from?” After allowing her to muse over those questions and get annoyed by the fact that nobody else seems to care about such things (while her classmates are absorbed in matters like who has a crush on whom and who’s winning sports events. Sophie, I understand your pain), the mysterious letter-sender begins sending her a course in philosophy—one little snippet at a time.

He tells her, “The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder.” He adds that children, every time they see a dog or a lion at the zoo, cry ‘Dog!’ or ‘Lion!’ But as they see more and more dogs and lions, they become less impressed and stop shouting excitedly. But it’s a shame, he says—we should all be constantly intrigued by things and take nothing in the world for granted. His intention, he says, is to ensure that Sophie does not grow up to be one of those adults who take the world for granted. Philosophers are like small children in that the world “continues to seem a bit unreasonable—bewildering, even enigmatic. . . . So you must choose, Sophie. Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so?”

The way he describes the Platonic shadows—via the horse explanation—is probably my favorite summary of it that I’ve ever come across. You can make a batch of identical(ish) cookies because you use a cookie mold. The individual cookies are mostly identical, but of course, they might have minor flaws that distinguish them from each other. But the mold is the “perfect” shape off of which the other cookies are modeled. Likewise, in some other reality, the world of ideas, there is a horse that is a “perfect” horse off of which the horses we encounter in this sensory world are copied.

Then he says, “Plato believed the soul existed before it inhabited the body. But as soon as the soul wakes up in a human body, it has forgotten all the perfect ideas. Then something wondrous happens. As the human being discovers the various forms in the natural world, a vague recollection stirs his soul. He sees a horse—but an imperfect horse. The sight of it is sufficient to awaken in the soul a faint recollection of the perfect horse, which the soul once saw in the world of ideas, and this stirs the soul with a yearning to return to its true realm. Plato calls this yearning eros—love. The soul, then, experiences a longing to return to its true origin. From now on, the body and the whole sensory world is experienced as imperfect and insignificant. The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body. . . . Plato believed that all natural phenomena are merely shadows of the eternal forms or ideas. But most people are content with a life among shadows. They give no thought to what is casting the shadows. They think shadows are all there are, never realizing even that they are, in fact, shadows. And thus they pay no heed to the immortality of their own soul. Plato’s point was not that the natural world is dark and dreary, but that it is dark and dreary in comparison with the clarity of ideas. A picture of a beautiful landscape is not dark and dreary either. But it is only a picture.”

Re-Read aufgrund unserer Buchbesprechung bei Literat.

1997 fand ich es unterhaltsam, interessant und auch wundschön fantasievoll.

Leider ist dieser Zauber beim jetzigen Lesen nicht mehr auf mich übergegangen. Vielleicht liegt es ja daran, dass es eigentlich ein Jugendbuch ist?

However, upon re-reading this book in 1997 due to our book review at Literat, I found it to be not only entertaining and interesting but also beautifully imaginative. It was like being transported to a magical world.

Unfortunately, this magic didn't transfer to me during my current reading. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's actually a young adult book?

As I grow older, my tastes and perspectives might have changed. What once seemed enchanting and captivating now feels a bit different.

Nonetheless, I still appreciate the creativity and charm that went into writing this book. It's a reminder of how our reading experiences can evolve over time.

Perhaps I'll give it another try in the future and see if I can recapture that initial magic.

Reading "The World of Sufism" was like finding a treasure for me! It was so valuable... so desirable...

In my opinion, it is the sweetest and kindest! It is a book written in the language of philosophy.

When I was reading about the evolution of philosophical thoughts and their positions against each other, a sentence that we had read in our textbooks about the prophets kept echoing in my mind:

"The duty of the prophets is to return society to balance."

That is, if the societies were in a state of excess or extravagance in different aspects of their lives, the prophets would guide the people towards balance with their teachings.

The term "prophet" may not have a philosophical meaning from a philosophical perspective, but philosophers, in a way, also had that role in society (especially the later philosophers who mostly focused on practical philosophy and pursued practical or political goals...). That is, as if each new philosopher who took a position against the previous philosopher's idea was exactly correcting and adjusting the excessive aspects of that intellectual current, but sometimes he himself would become excessive or extravagant in another aspect and prepare the ground for the emergence of a new idea...

Hegel has presented this subject in the form of a theory that, in my opinion, can be a summary of the history of philosophy:

"Whenever an excessive claim is proposed (thesis)

the opposite claim is brought forward against it (antithesis)

the synthetic point of view is reached, which is the midpoint between the two schools of thought (synthesis = identity), and in this way, the contradiction between the two ways of thinking is elevated.

And each synthesis will be refuted by a new antithesis... and this story continues...

Besides, regardless of what thoughts each of us pursues and what we believe in, there was a poem in this book by Thomas Hardy called "The Other One" which was inspired by Darwin's theory. I wanted to record it here as a remembrance:

A part of this tree

Is a man whom my great-grandfather knew,

And now lies beneath it

What if this branch becomes the mate of his

A living and blooming human

Who has now become a young green one.

These plants must have come from him

From a woman who, a century ago, for her peace

Used to tend to her grave.

And the beautiful daughter whom I tried to get to know all those years ago

And who knows if she has led to this red flower?

So they are not beneath the earth,

But like nerves and blood vessels everywhere

They are at work in the rise and appearance of the high air,

And again and again the sun and rain

And a force that made them like this...

The two things this book has going for it are: the plot and narrative frame are original and creative, and the story is more informative than most.

The basic premise is that a 14-year-old Norwegian girl embarks on a correspondence course with a philosopher, and he teaches her the major points of Western philosophy, from the ancient Greeks up until the existentialists. What makes the narrative structure more original than your average novel is that everything becomes very meta and self-referential towards the end, when it comes to light that the girl and the teacher are not what they appear to be. The book is somewhat postmodern in this respect, but brought down to a level suitable for young adult readers.

As far as the story being informative -- by the end of the book, I had learned a lot about trends in the history of philosophy, as well as the major ideas of each major philosopher's project, so in that respect Sophie's World was useful and educational.

However, the book was weighed down by several elements of the story that a good editor could have foreseen and cut out. In general the author devotes too much energy to trivial details, which ultimately results in him writing a 500-page novel that could have been improved by being merely a 300-page novel. On top of that, Gaarder is not adept at the mystery genre, but tries to make this book a mystery story anyway. Sophie is under-characterized and has several unnecessary flaws that contribute nothing to the story and only serve to make the reader dislike her. The man who teaches Sophie philosophy is condescending, patronizing, and pedantic.

Throughout the entire story, I found it very unrealistic that no one else thought that it was untoward or creepy that a 40-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl were alone together for hours in his house several days a week. Sophie's mother was very curious about this man, but she never forbade Sophie from seeing him or asked Sophie if everything was all right, and she only met him after the correspondence course had been going on for several months. Sophie was ditching schoolwork and family to be with this man and was totally obsessed with him. He remained totally in control throughout the whole story and commanded her in a way that made me uncomfortable at times. It seems that Gaarder would have been uncomfortable having the philosophy teacher be female -- Gaarder himself used to be a philosophy teacher, and so he probably found it more comfortable to have the character representing him be the same sex as him -- but he was too squeamish to confront the realities of such a socially suspect relationship, and I found that irresponsible of him, especially in a book geared towards young adults.

My other major criticism of the book is that it deals entirely with Western philosophy and only the dead white men of Western philosophy, at that. Gaarder tries to compensate for this by having Sophie be his mouthpiece for feminism, but not only do I find it highly unlikely that a 14-year-old girl would take up arms about women's rights the way she did, but I also found most of her comments to be the kind of canned, stereotypical comments that a male who didn't know much about feminism would assume a feminist would say.

My one final thought will be to say that if you read this book (and you should only read it if you have nothing better at hand), pay attention to the role of motherhood and fatherhood in the story. Although the book is not about mothers and fathers, parents play a large role in the characters' lives, and the way Gaarder portrays mothers as meddling, clueless, domestic drones and fathers as intelligent, authoritative (and absent) heroes says more about Gaarder's own life than I think he intended it to.

This has been an upsetting reread.

On one hand, I've found that the book, in its own quiet way and within the minds of its readers, leaves me hungry for more. There's a certain allure that makes me long for deeper exploration.

Yet, on the other hand, it also provides a strange sort of balance. Years ago, when I first read this book that changed my life for the better, I truly believed it was the best read in the world.

How naive I was back then! I also thought that all philosophy books were as easily digestible as "Sophie's World." What a delusion!

Now, upon rereading, the book seems slow and uncouth. It's as if it's cut from the same cloth as Aristotle's imbecilities, Kant's willful religiosity, and Spinoza's heartbreaking and enthusiastic views.

This book is like "Philosophy For Dummies," a crash course in philosophy. Sophie is a girl, but is she real? Was she real and will she continue to be real? How does she survive?

You could do worse than trying to find answers to those questions by reading this book. But finally, I must admit defeat. This book is ephemeral. I simply couldn't fully grasp it.

It remains an enigma, one that continues to both fascinate and frustrate me.

A very good book for starting philosophy!

Philosophy is a vast and profound subject that can be quite intimidating for beginners. However, there are some excellent books available that can serve as a great introduction to this fascinating field.

One such book is [Book Name]. It offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of the fundamental concepts and ideas in philosophy. The author presents the material in a clear and engaging manner, making it easy for readers to understand even the most complex topics.

Whether you are interested in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, or any other branch of philosophy, this book has something to offer. It provides a solid foundation upon which you can build your knowledge and understanding of philosophy.

So, if you are looking for a good book to start your journey into the world of philosophy, look no further than [Book Name]. It is sure to激发 your curiosity and leave you with a deeper appreciation for this ancient and important discipline.

Sofie returns home from school one day to find two questions in her mailbox: Who are you? And where does the world come from?

In a strange way, her life's path and the sequence of her thoughts change. Sofie, who is 15 years old, suddenly becomes a philosophy student through correspondence,

taught by a teacher about whom she knows nothing except his desire to constantly arouse her dread and astonishment.

Because "the only quality required for a person to become a philosopher is to be astonished!"

The philosopher is a person who has never become accustomed to this world, and the world will remain an insoluble mystery to him.

And the mystery of this teacher will be just one of many other mysteries that will invade Sofie's world.

So why does Sofie constantly receive letters addressed to another girl named Hilde? And who is this Hilde? And who is Sofie herself?

Sofie tries to solve those mysteries, relying on her innate knowledge of philosophy. But the truth that she will eventually discover is stranger than anything she could have imagined.

In this novel, we witness a simple presentation of the course of Western philosophy from the ancient Greek era to our present time.

And we learn how philosophers dealt with the world, and how they looked at things that we consider "ordinary" in an extraordinary way.

It also presents the Renaissance, the Baroque period, and the Romantic era.

It also presents the development of scientific theories that have left their mark on the world of thought and philosophy, such as the scientific concepts of Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin.

A lot of philosophical information, or rather a comprehensive summary of the long history of philosophy,

Jostein Gaarder has ingeniously incorporated it within a narrative context, writing his love story in a thrilling and mysterious style.

Basically, Russell's History of Western Philosophy has been ingeniously adapted as a postmodern Norwegian YA novel.

"Where are we?" asked Sofie. "I don't understand. We aren't in my world any more. Or in Hilde's world. So..."

Alberto sighed. "It is clear," he said, "that we have entered another narrative. By the look of it, I strongly suspect a review. On the Goodreads website."

"Explain!" said Sofie.

"You remember that we became a book," continued Alberto patiently. "I can see that this book was very successful. It has been widely read - so widely, in fact, that people have started parodying it. We are in one of those parodies."

"Then we are being written again?" asked Sofie. "By someone else?"

"Indeed," replied Alberto. "I can immediately tell from the style that the author has changed."

"But in that case," said Sofie, "are we still us? If we're in the mind of a different person?"

"Ah," said Alberto. "A very interesting question! Come, Sofie, you have now finished my philosophy course. What possibilities are there?"

Sofie considered. "Well," she said, "I suppose Plato might have argued that the real Sofie was never in the mind of her author. What was there could only have been a poor shadow of the true Sofie, who was in the world of Forms. So why could not another shadow appear in the mind of a different person, and be just as real as the first one?"

"Excellent, excellent," murmured her teacher. "Please continue."

"And Berkeley," said Sofie, "would have told me I was an idea in the mind of God, even if I was at the same time an idea in the mind of another of God's creatures. So even if I have a different author, I am still one of God's thoughts."

"You are an attentive student," smiled Alberto.

"And Hegel would also agree," said Sofie. "He would say I had become part of the Weltgeist, the World Spirit. The Weltgeist encompasses many individual minds, so although I am written by a different person, I am still me."

"I am proud of you," said Alberto. "And now--"

"No, wait!" said Sofie. "Sartre would have said that it is my individual choice to decide who I am. Only I can resolve my existential situation. I have to take responsibility for it myself."

"And do you take responsibility for it?" asked Alberto.

"Hm," said Sofie. "On the one hand, I don't feel I'm very well written. My dialogue is flat and implausible. I'm not a particularly credible character, just a mouthpiece for the author. Of course the same goes for you."

"And is that bad?" asked Alberto.

"Maybe not," said Sofie. "After all, it's made clear that we are just characters in an invented philosophy text. And there are so many references to Plato. Many of his characters are flat and unbelievable too, and only serve as foils for Socrates."

"A good point," murmured Alberto.

"And the author's intentions are admirable!" said Sofie enthusiastically. "The passage about Nils Holgerssons underbara resa could not be more clear. He wants to write a philosophy course suitable for younger teens that will genuinely engage their attention. Maybe the Philip K. Dick plays on the nature of reality are unsubtle. But they work. Tens of millions of people have read and enjoyed this book, who would never have dreamed of reading an ordinary piece of philosophy. Of course we aren't as good as Russell, but is that the relevant comparison? We're so much better than Harry Potter or Twilight."

"But are you still you?" asked Alberto. "That, after all, is the question we started off discussing."

"I am!" replied Sofie firmly. "I decide that I am. I know I'm now being written by someone else, but it makes no difference. I can feel he wants to start picking at the details - that absurdly incorrect description of the Big Bang, for example - but I won't let him!"

"Irony, irony," said Alberto.

"I'll let him have his little bit of irony," said Sofie in a scornful voice, "but I don't care! I'm stronger than he is, and I will go on to introduce millions more kids to philosophy. Maybe they'll look back one day when they've become more sophisticated and sneer, but it doesn't matter. I'll know what really got them started on the subject."

"Well said!" said Alberto, and laughed out loud. "You are my very favorite teen girl philosopher superhero. Bravo! Bravo!"

"Thank you," said Sofie modestly. "I wondered when you'd figure out why I was wearing a cape. Here, I have one for you too. I hope the color goes with your skiing hat?"

"Not bad," said Alberto, as he surveyed his reflection in the magic mirror.

"Okay then!" said Sofie. She pointed towards the infinite realms of chaos around them. "No time to lose! Come on! Let's philosophize!"

**"Review and Evaluation of 'Sophie's World'"**

**"Sophie's World" is a philosophical novel with 542 pages. The author is Jostein Gaarder, a Norwegian. It is published by Dar al-Mana. The book is in print format and can be purchased at Jumlon.

The difficulty in explaining this novel lies in the fear of spoiling it for the reader. So, I will try to give a brief overview as much as possible. The title might initially suggest that the book is about the life of a world that is苏菲's belief, but that's a misunderstanding. The actual meaning is that we will be inside a special world of a girl named Sophie. She is a 14-year-old girl approaching her 15th birthday and lives with her mother while her father works in the navy and is often away for long periods.

Sophie receives mysterious letters in the week before her 15th birthday. These letters, found in the mailbox of her home, contain strange questions she has never thought of before. Sometimes they are addressed to a personality she knows nothing about! Why does she receive them? Who is the strange personality who has taken it upon herself to be her teacher? What will she teach her? How will her mother react to this? What are the lessons Sophie will learn? So far, it might seem like a normal novel, right?

Unfortunately, the answer is wrong. The novel dramatically presents information about philosophy from ancient to modern times, with a long list of famous names engraved with their marks throughout the ages in a very engaging sequence from one philosopher to another, based on the author's hard, intense, and deep work.

Also, the pleasure of the novel doesn't stop there. It will surprise you on page 300 that you haven't been reading the novel correctly! How? What if there is a personality that will be revealed to you, dear reader, and make you see the novel from a completely different perspective than your previous and subsequent deductions! This is what I promise you to discover more through reading the book.

**General Evaluation**:

First, regarding the translation, it is good and will not make you feel cramped or confused in following its flow.

Second, through your reading, sentence by sentence, you will see the information that presents the history of philosophy throughout the ages, and you will surely be amazed at what you discover.

Third, in my opinion, the author's skill is to make you confused in following the flow of the novel and then surprise you later with a deduction that was absent from your imagination, as happened to me.

Fourth, I must admit that I felt the author wanted to end the book in the last pages and easily introduced many repeated characters for the same purpose and goal.

Despite all that, I rate my experience with the book