Sophie's World Gaarder, Jostein

Phoenix
Year of publishing: 1995
Place of publishing: London
ISBN: 1857997220
Language: English
Series: first

This long, dense novel, a bestseller in the author's native Norway, offers a summary history of philosophy embedded in a philosophical mystery disguised as a children's book-but only sophisticated young adults would be remotely interested. Sophie Amundsen is about to turn 15 when she receives a letter from one Alberto Knox, a philosopher who undertakes to educate her in his craft. Sections in which we read the text of Knox's lessons to Sophie about the pre-Socratics, Plato and St. Augustine alternate with those in which we find out about Sophie's life with her well-meaning mother. Soon, though, Sophie begins receiving other, stranger missives addressed to one Hilde Moller Knag from her absent father, Albert. As Alberto Knox's lessons approach this century, he and Sophie come to suspect that they are merely characters in a novel written by Albert for his daughter. Teacher and pupil hatch a plot to understand and possibly escape from their situation; and from there, matters get only weirder. Norwegian philosophy professor Gaarder's notion of making a history of philosophy accessible is a good one. Unfortunately, it's occasionally undermined by the dry language he uses to describe the works of various thinkers and by an idiosyncratic bias that gives one paragraph to Nietzsche but dozens to Sartre, breezing right by Wittgenstein and the most influential philosophy of this century, logical positivism. Many readers, regardless of their age, may be tempted to skip over the lessons, which aren't well integrated with the more interesting and unusual metafictional story line. Author tour.

Volumes

GAA_10.2. (Borrowed)

Keywords

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New arrivals

New titles in our library 12/2016

Our library has aquired a number of new and interesting books. Here is the list of the latest titles.

Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith
Fashion Cities Africa by Hannah Azieb Pool
Frantz Fanon: Toward a Revolutionary Humanismby Christopher Lee
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Robinson, James A., Acemoglu, Daron
Shakespeare in Swahililand: Adventures With the Ever-Living Poet by Edward Wilson-Lee
A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present by Richard J. Reid
Authentically African: Arts and the Transnational Politics of Congolese Culture by Sarah Van Beurden
Children in Slavery through the Ages by by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, Joseph C. Miller
Global Health in Africa: Historical Perspectives on Disease Control by Tamara Giles-Vernick
Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos by Gary Stewart
Women and Slavery, Vol. 1: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic by Gwyn Campbell
Women and Slavery, Vol. 2: The Modern Atlantic by Gwyn Campbell
Cahier d'un Retour Au Pays Natal by Aimé Cesaire
Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange and Competition in South Africa, 1820-1948 by Karen Elizabeth Flint
Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies by Antoni Verger
Black Skin, White Coats: Nigerian Psychiatrists, Decolonization, and the Globalization of Psychiatry by Matthew M. Heaton