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Sophie’s World
by Vincent Zabus and Nicoby
SelfMadeHero, £18.99
JOSTEIN GAARDER’s best-selling novel, exploring a teenager’s introduction to the history of philosophy, was first published in 1991. Since then it’s been translated into 59 languages and sold over 40 million print copies.
This graphic novel version illustrates Sophie’s initial confrontations with philosophical thought and gets to grips with the period between Socrates and Galileo. Along the way it also touches on the concepts of idealism and determinism and doesn’t shy away from exploring Sophie’s own misunderstandings and occasional confusion.
In Sophie’s world it’s more useful to learn to think philosophically than memorise theories, and she’s clear that philosophers shouldn’t be in ivory towers preaching to those experiencing the struggles of everyday life.
The importance of repeatedly challenging the status quo is understood, though it does come with a warning that anyone deemed to be asking too many questions is usually seen as a threat by those in control.
Myths, rituals and the existence of a god are dealt with during a crash course on the “natural philosophers.” Socrates and Plato helpfully remind us that the ignorant might have the loudest voices because, unlike real thinkers, they cannot perceive the limits of their own knowledge and understanding.
Aristotle is succinctly shamed as a “moron” due to his “bullshit” claim that women are incomplete men.
This quick-fire history lesson also includes an examination of the Stoics, Epicureanism, the Humanists and the original meaning of cynicism. Alongside an introduction to the advent of Christianity and other religious beliefs, it races through the middle ages, calling at all stops from Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine and Ibn Rushd to Hildegard von Bingen.
Hubert Reeves’s concept of the “fucking human factor” even gets thrown in for consideration.
Anyone who finds themselves asking the same questions about the meaning of life that have bothered people through the ages will hopefully find Sophie’s World an information-packed, easy-to-read and humorous book that can help you to find the serenity to accept the things you can’t change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
