"يجب أن أنزل إلى الماء و أسبح لاستعادة القارب....!!!!"

This statement implies that one must descend into the water and swim in order to retrieve the boat. It suggests a sense of urgency and a necessary action that needs to be taken.

Perhaps the boat has drifted away or become stuck in a certain location in the water. The person making this statement realizes that the only way to get the boat back is by taking the plunge and using their swimming skills.

It could also imply a challenge or a task that requires courage and determination. Descending into the water and swimming may not be an easy feat, especially if the conditions are not favorable. However, the need to retrieve the boat outweighs any potential difficulties.

In conclusion, this simple yet powerful statement emphasizes the importance of taking action and facing challenges head-on in order to achieve a desired outcome.

I read this book a million years ago. In fact, it was during my middle school days when I was around 13 years old. At that time, my reading preferences mainly leaned towards speculative fiction and some abridged classics. I had little patience for 'philosophy' as I found it rather dull and difficult to understand. However, I vividly remember that I still enjoyed this particular book and managed to learn a great deal from it.

Nonetheless, I would not be going back to it in the foreseeable future. The simple reason is that life is incredibly short, and there is an abundance of better books waiting for me to explore. With so many wonderful literary works out there, I feel that it is more worthwhile to invest my time in discovering new and exciting reads rather than revisiting an old one.

Each book has its own unique charm and value, and I am eager to embark on new literary adventures and expand my knowledge and understanding through reading. So, while I have fond memories of this book, I am ready to move on and embrace the countless other literary treasures that await me.

Socrates emphasizes that he knows only one thing (that he knows nothing). Remember this principle well. For this admission is rare even among philosophers. He added that it is dangerous to announce this to the public because it may cost its holder his life. Those who ask questions are always the most dangerous. Answering nothing is not a problem. Because one question can detonate what a hundred answers cannot.

Even if you have only met black crows in your life, this does not mean that there are no white crows. The philosopher, like the scientist, does not rule out any possibility. And thus, the search for a white crow is the duty of a man of knowledge.

The living planet is us, O Sophist! We are the great ship that sails around a solitary sun, in the heart of the universe. But each of us is also a ship that traverses life carrying our genes. If we reach the point of emptying the load in the right port, we will not have lived in vain.

We are condemned to freedom. For we are those representatives who are pushed onto the stage, without being given a specific role, without a script in hand, and without a prompter whispering to us what we should do. It is up to us alone to choose how we live our lives.

01

Socrates stresses that he knows only one thing (that he doesn't know). Keep this principle firmly in mind. This admission is indeed rare even among philosophers. He further remarks that it is perilous to proclaim this to the general public as it might cost the one making it their life. Those who pose questions are always the most dangerous. Answering nothing is not a complication. Because a single question can shatter what a hundred answers cannot.

02

Even if in your life you have only encountered black crows, this does not imply that there are no white crows. The philosopher, like the scientist, does not exclude any supposition. And thereby, the search for a white crow is an obligation for a man of learning.

03

The living planet is us, O wise one! We are the great vessel that voyages around a solitary sun, in the heart of the cosmos. But each one of us is also a vessel that crosses life carrying our genes. If we manage to reach the point of emptying the load in the appropriate port, we will not have lived in futility.

04

We are condemned to procrastination. For we are those representatives who are thrust onto the stage, without being assigned a definite role, without a script in hand, and without a cue giver murmuring to us what we are supposed to do. It is up to us alone to decide how we live our lives.

is a novel about the history of philosophy. The narration is presented as a story within a story. Perhaps, due to this reason, the long digressions about the history of philosophy do not burden, but on the contrary, gain meaning and skillfully recreate all the periods through which philosophy passes as a science. Similar to it, the two main heroines, who are mirror images of each other, embark on a journey through the depths of one of the oldest sciences to mature and turn into adults. Sophie and Alberto, who are the product of the major's imagination, tell the story of philosophy, and Hilde is their reader and observer.

I started skeptically wondering if I would finish it, but lo and behold, it happened and I would say that I liked it. The book offers a unique and engaging way to learn about philosophy. It combines fictional elements with historical facts, making it accessible and interesting for a wide range of readers. The characters of Sophie and Alberto are well-developed and their conversations about philosophy are thought-provoking. The author's writing style is clear and engaging, making it easy to follow the story. Overall, is a great read that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in philosophy or just looking for an interesting and engaging book.

I read this book when I was twenty, and then I read it again recently on a business trip.

What makes this book truly remarkable is that the author selects the prominent Philosophers from the West and presents their essences in a form that is easily digestible by the general public. In fact, he initially wrote this book solely to teach his high school philosophy class, yet it has since achieved worldwide success.

The only thing that I regret is that the author has not bothered to explore the philosophers from the East. If he had, I am certain that he would have done an equally excellent job. However, in how many high schools in the West are students taught about the philosophers from the East?

The book is written in the form of a novel, and I find the author's storytelling skills to be quite good. Overall, I believe it is an outstanding book for those who desire a solid understanding of Western philosophy, as it is highly comprehensible.

It provides a valuable introduction to the subject matter and allows readers to engage with the ideas of the great Western philosophers in an accessible way.

Whether you are a student of philosophy or simply someone with an interest in the subject, this book is well worth reading.

The world of Sufism is one of the best books that can be given as a gift to others. Especially to young friends.

At the same time, with the attractive plot of the story in the book, the reader becomes acquainted with philosophy. One of the first virtues of philosophy is knowing and thinking better, which is necessary for everyone.

I entered the world of philosophy with this book.

It opened up a whole new realm of thought and understanding for me. The teachings and ideas presented in the book are not only profound but also applicable to our daily lives.

Reading it has made me more aware of the importance of inner peace, love, and compassion.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring the world of philosophy and seeking a deeper understanding of life.

It is truly a gem that can have a profound impact on one's life.

The world of Sufi writing is a good philosophy teacher and a bad storyteller. This problem, along with the passage of time during my military service, caused the reading of this novel to take nearly two years, and this problem makes the book not have the value of being reread due to its weak story, except for reading the philosophical parts of the story.

It seems that the book, during its teaching of the history of philosophy, has presented the main parts and main ideas of each philosopher. But is this "tipping" into the philosophical world of each philosopher sufficient to obtain a minimum understanding of philosophy? Of course not!

Perhaps one day I will summarize the philosophy teaching of this book for myself.

I didn't say it without a reason. If I were to say that criticizing the writing for this book is harder than reading it. Reading this book is not an easy task. A person is forced to bring his beliefs - no matter how strong they are - into the middle of the knowledge and fight with them. With his beliefs, for his beliefs.

In my opinion, this book is the best choice for entering the world of philosophy.

Sometimes a person comes face to face with schools of thought and thinks "Hey! It's obvious! This is the truth they are saying!" But two pages later, you see that the house is completely destroyed.

A book that, despite its complexity, is very simple. (Or vice versa?!)

If I want to write more about it, it will become boring! You go and with reading the world of Sufism, see how amazing the truth is...

This is by far the worst book I have ever had the misfortune to read. And believe me, I have read a plethora of truly terrible books in my time. I simply cannot fathom why so many people seem to hold this book in such high regard. It is an absolute travesty of a literary work - stupid, pretentious, arrogant, and horribly written. I struggle to envision anyone seriously having positive thoughts about it.

Here are two of the main reasons why I despise it so vehemently: 1. The entire story is abysmal. It lacks any semblance of excitement, interest, or indeed anything other than being excruciatingly boring. It is blatantly obvious that the writer thought, "Let's pen a philosophy book for children!" "But wait," they mused. "Children are too stupid to read it unless it has a story." "Oh, since children are stupid, I can just write something random and senseless, and they'll love it (even though I've never written anything before)." 2. The writer's arrogance is simply indescribable. It's possible that he is an amazing writer feigning arrogance, but I highly doubt it (see point 1). Philosophers are not superior to other people, yet this terrible individual clearly thinks otherwise. First, there's the whole rabbit/hat comparison. It's just so mind-numbingly dumb, untrue, and idiotic that I'm at a loss for words. Seriously? Do non-philosopher people never think about anything? Are only philosophers the ones who use their brains and are noble and good? Then there's the whole thing with how the mother (one of the non-philosophers) thinks Sophie is using drugs when she asks profound questions like "Why do you think we exist?" And Alberto constantly makes remarks like "This is so hard, you probably won't understand it" about really simple concepts. Argh! It irritates me to no end. If you have any interest in delving into the history of western philosophy, I strongly advise you to read Bertrand Russell's book. It covers the same subjects but is beautifully written, engaging, and won't make you want to tear your hair out every two sentences.

This is truly one of the most amazing books that I have read so far!

In 2007, after reading just a few pages, I became extremely busy at work, causing this book to be sidelined. However, a few months ago, when I regained my interest in reading and resumed this book last weekend, I simply could not put it down. I managed to finish the remaining 400 pages or so in just two days!

Having almost zero background in Philosophy, this novel filled my brain to the brim. And the way it did so was truly amazing. It was an easy read, as I understand it was designed to introduce kids to Philosophy, but Gaarder's fertile mind was simply marvelous!

Each of the great philosophers was discussed, and they almost came alive. For example, Sophie saw Socrates alive on the video in Athens. I particularly liked the portion about Darwin and the start of life from the soup of life. With my medical background, I know a lot about DNA and heredity, but this presented the theories in a very simple and entertaining way.

Many contemporary authors should learn from Gaarder, who I learned is not even a native English speaker or writer, being born and based in Norway. Thanks to Dexter for recommending this book to me and Tata J for marking this book in the 501 Must Read Books with “Very Good”. I disagree with that, as for me, this book is simply amazing!

\\n  “It's not a silly question if you can't answer it.”\\n

It's truly refreshing when our expectations are met. This book, although mainly targeted at those who haven't yet delved into philosophy, serves as a nice reminder of all the things I studied at university. Since the author is one of my favorites, it's really difficult for me to be completely objective about his work. However, this novel is truly remarkable, despite having several flaws.

In essence, the book is about the history of philosophy, featuring a 14-year-old girl named Sophie and her philosophy teacher, Alberto Knox. Sophie starts receiving letters from a stranger, which gradually turn into a course in philosophy. As time passes, she begins to view her world differently, much to the annoyance of her mother. Strangely enough, she gets used to these letters very quickly. At first, you're intrigued by the mystery of who the stranger is, but then you start to get annoyed by the whole situation. For the first 250 pages, not much happens - Sophie just gets a new letter and reads it. Finally, she meets her teacher and they talk, but it's not very satisfying. The plot seems to be just a means to get from one philosophy lesson to another, and to be honest, it can be quite boring. If the story consisted only of philosophy lessons, it would surely deserve 5 stars. With each letter, Alberto explains to Sophie each of the major philosophies and philosophers in the history of philosophy, starting from the pre-Socratic philosophers and moving on to contemporary philosophy like that of Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism.

The book is like a recap of what I learned in high school and university, and I love it. It's written in a light style with short sentences and simple, clear language. No subject is analyzed in great depth, nor should it be, but there's enough information presented at each stage for a reader to form an opinion about each one. Gaarder does an excellent job not only of writing a concise history of philosophy but also of creating a comprehensible book for everyone. However, as a novel, it lacks a proper plot, conflict, and climax.

“Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.”

Easily, this book could be considered as one about growing up. We can clearly see how Sophie is maturing with each letter she receives, although the question remains as to how realistic that development is. At times, she acts too arrogantly for someone with little life experience, especially towards her mother.

“The most subversive people are those who ask questions. Giving answers is not nearly as threatening. Any one question can be more explosive than a thousand answers.”

For quotes like this, the book holds great value.

“There is an artist in everyone. A dream is, after all, a little work of art, and there are new dreams every night.”

And I really love Gaarder's notions of art.

Sophie is a keen student, but she's also a very dull girl who can't think for herself and is rather unlikable. The author fails to give her a real personality. Also, the way she treats her teacher and calls him names is irritating and gives me even more reasons not to like her. Even more, I didn't like how she easily accepted that a 40-year-old man wanted to give her lessons without knowing who he was.

“The philosopher had rescued her. The unknown letter writer had saved her from the triviality of everyday existence.”

While it's wonderful to see her transform into a perceptive young woman, it can also seem pretentious at times. Yes, philosophy is a wonderful subject of study, but it also takes time to process. It's hard for me to believe that a 14-year-old girl could so easily understand and accept everything she read in the letters when it usually takes at least two years to comprehend the laws of philosophy.

Sophie’s World is an outstanding outline of Western philosophy that is artfully presented within a fictional story. It traverses the expanse of philosophical thought, starting from pre-Socratic philosophy and extending all the way to Sartre.

Jostein Gaarder accomplishes a remarkable feat. He not only composes a concise history of philosophy but also creates a highly accessible book that can be enjoyed by early teenagers. This alone is worthy of the highest praise. His comparisons between different philosophers throughout the book are truly outstanding and make the reading experience thoroughly enjoyable. For instance, he vividly demonstrates the contrast between Aristotle and Plato by comparing their views on reality and the mind in a manner that I have never seen in any philosophy textbook I know. As I read the book and recalled my philosophy classes in school, I repeatedly wished that something like Sophie's World had been taught instead of the dull philosophy textbooks that I can barely remember anything from.

However, some might argue that certain philosophers were overlooked by the author. I believe this is a result of his engaging fictional story, which is filled with captivating twists and thought-provoking questions. Moreover, it is not reasonable to expect a comprehensive account of Western philosophy to be condensed into a book of less than 500 pages. I think that certain lesser-known philosophers had to be omitted, not only to achieve brevity but also to ensure a seamless integration between the fictional and non-fictional elements of the book. Nevertheless, the book covers a vast range of philosophical topics and is extremely informative.

Finally, I believe the most significant aspect of Sophie's World is that it illuminates the importance of various discoveries and advancements of civilization in our reality and the profound influence they have exerted on our thoughts and philosophies throughout the ages. In my opinion, this can be better illustrated by an artist than by a philosopher, which is precisely what Gaarder does in the book. And that is exactly why I wholeheartedly recommend it.