Sophie's World

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I was recommended this novel by my English teacher. I found it good, and I wanted to gather others opinions. I'm only 1/3rd through it, don't give it away!

I don't think I've heard of it. What's it about?

GA

Philosophy and the philosophers. It's hard to explain.

it's about the history of westen philosophy, written as a novel with a (supposed) plot and characters etc.

no offence, Soma, but i couldn't get through more than a couple of chapters. it was "THE book to read" when it came out, especially amongst the chattering classes, and so everyone was reading it. i found it so tremendously tedious that i couldn't be arsed wading through it - i went and read a textbook on the history of western philosophy instead, and it was far more interesting, entertaining and readable, quite frankly. i just couldn't care less about "what happens next?". dull, dull, dull. and badly written (although that may have been the translation).

what did amuse me about it is that, when i asked loads of people who'd read the whole thing, they eventually admitted what a pile of boring bilge it was. but then, they HAD to read it, cos everyone was reading it and saying how wonderful it was.

so, another case of "the emperor's new clothes". one of the times i thank the gods i'm an aspie.

you may well enjoy it, so don't take my word for it, Soma. i'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

while i'm on the subject, there was a similar book which attempted to do the same with maths - "the parrot's theorem" by denis guedj. it was nearly as bad, with the plot shoehorned in amongst the maths bits. i just read the maths bits (entertaining) and ignored the tenuous and pointless plot attempt.

and there's one which does the same for religion - "theo's odyssey", by catherine clement - which i thoroughly enjoyed - it's what "sophie's world" should have been.

Yeah, Sophie's World is pretty tedious. We had to read it for Philosophy class in university. I didn't understand the ending at all. Perhaps someone can explain it to me in a PM. Its an interesting way to write about philosophy, but that's about all.

I really enjoyed "Sophie's world". But I didn't read it as a novel. I mean the plot is interesting but too minor besides the philosophy lessons. After having read it, I re-opened my former philo schoolbooks with pleasure (ok, aspies are poor liars, in fact, then I opened my philo books for the first time ).

I expected "the parrot's theorem" to be also interesting, but I was very disappointed : I found it boring and uncomprehensible.

alexandra

Heh, I thought this had to do with Sophist's point of view.

One of the best novels on philosophy I have read.
It took me a year to read.