Wisest she who knows she does not know
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The novel Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder is both a mystery and a history of western philosophy. The story begins when Sophie, aged fourteen, receives an anonymous letter. It contains two questions: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" This is the first in a series of letters in which Sophie is taught the history of western thought.

It was originally written in Norwegian and it has been translated into numerous languages. It became extremely successful, and in 1994 it was the New York Times Bestseller.

Its popularity was due to the author’s ability to explain very complex ideas in a clear and simple manner. Owing to its clarity it is sometimes used as an introductory text for first year philosophy students.

The TOEFL examination seeks to know if you are both able to follow this sort of material, and to reproduce it in writing.

Exercise 1

In the following exercise you are going to do three things. Firstly, in groups you will read different extracts from an early chapter Sophie's World, entitled ‘The Natural Philosophers’ pp 28-40 . You will try to grasp the philosophical ideas expressed (this is much easier than it sounds), and answer a number of questions. Secondly, you will investigate Gaarder’s writing technique. Once you have finished you will share your findings with the class and complete the table below. Finally you will try to imitate it,by writing a short text.

1. The Natural Philosophers pp 30-32
2. Three Philosophers from Miletus pp 32-33
3. Nothing can come from nothing & All things flow pp. 33-35
4. Four Basic Elements pp.35-38
5. Something of Everything in Everything pp.38-40

Questions

1) What is the theme of the text you read?
2) What is the main idea expressed in each paragraph?
3) What is the purpose of the first and last sentence of each paragraph?
4) How many ideas are expressed in each paragraph?
5) What do you notice about the style of writing?
6) Comment on sentence length, punctuation, vocabulary and expressions.
7) The author sometimes uses ‘isolated sentences’ in the text; that is, sentences not part of a paragraph. Why do you think the author uses them?
8) Compare your answers with others in the class.
9) Write a set of rules for writing paragraphs
10) Use the rules you developed and write 2-3 paragraphs either summarizing the text you read, or the class discussion. Please do this for homework.

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Table 1
Complete the table of Natural Philosophers. Give their dates where possible, their origins and their main ideas.
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Natural Philosophers
Project:
Findings:
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Thales:
Anaximanders:
Anaximenes:
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Parmenides:

Heraclitus:
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Empodocles:
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Anaxagoras:

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Answers

© All Copyright, 2007, Ray Genet