The Book Report of Sophie

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The Book Report of Sophie’s World Miao Xing, Class2, 2008, English department This is a thought-provoking book about the history of philosophy which will not only arouse curiosity and care about the ultimate meaning of life and world in people’s deepest heart but also make people awake from daily life. Jostein Gaarder(1952.8.8~),the author of the book which is popular all over the world, is one of the top writers in the world. He had born in Aug. 8, 1952, Norway. His father was a schoolmaster and mother was a teacher who had used to write some reading matter to children. All of this had a great influence on his later living and creation. He majored in philosophy, theology and literature when he learned in university, and got his bachelor degree in literature. Then, he became a literature and philosophy teacher in a senior high school—all of this gave him a good preparation for writing later. After published his first book, Jostein Gaarder had already became the most important writer in North Europe. He became a professional writer in 1991 and at the same year, the excellent book, Sophie’s world had been published. Until now, there were more than 30 countries bought the copyright of this best-seller and it had been translated into more than 40 kinds of languages. It is one of the hundred scriptures in 20th century. It started from the 14 years old girl, Sophie, found a mysterious letter in the mailbox one day after school. It read: Who are you? And later, another one, which said: Where does the world come from? The two questions made Sophie confused and curious. After that she got a strange postcard to Hilde. She soon got a big envelope which back had been written: “Course in philosophy, Handle with care.” From that moment, Sophie step into a new world—philosophical world and started to attempt to think things in a different way. Under the mysterious tutor’s leading and teaching through letters were send everyday, she found the world spread in front of her in a mysterious and amazing way. The teacher first brought up questions and gave examples to introduce philosophy to her briefly, and then outlined the people’s thought about philosophy. It described in time order: first, the earliest Greek philosophers, who also called natural philosophers for they were mainly concerned with the natural world and its process. Three preventative philosophers from Miletus: Thales, Anaximander and Anaximander. Though they all believed in the existence of a single basic substance as the source of all things, they had different thoughts about it. The next was a group of philosophers who are interested in the problems of change: Parmenides, Heraditus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and the last great natural philosophers, Democritus. Next is something about fate, to lead to the three great philosophers who with their thoughts, theory and behavior created the foundation of European philosophy: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, The last part is the period which from Aristotle near the end of the fourth century B.C. right up to the early Middle Ages around A.D.400, which included two parts: Hellenism and Roman period. The specific contents were: Religious, Philosophy and Science, and how they form a new living philosophy. The philosophers in this period still tried to solve the problem had asked by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Four of these philosopher branches are The Cynics, The Stoics, The Epicureans and Neoplatonism. That’s all the contents in the first 12 chapters. The author used the narration of the story in story to tell the true world behind the world we know in daily life. It not only tells people the development process of human philosophy but also makes people to think about many points which are very important but we never think about it before. As for me there are three points left deep impressions. First one is the first two questions Sophie had been asked: Who are you? Where does the world come from? I never thought about these kinds of questions. I am me; I am star, are these answers seem like reasonable? Of course it is not. Star is only a name, a symbol to tell apart me from others, and without it, who am I? Sophie don’t know and so didn’t I. Is it possible I will change into anther girl? I considered it for a long time but only get this answer: I am a creature who has free conscious and thinking ability so I am different from other creatures and I have independent