Questions:
Sophie's World
Read Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder and was wondering about the following, with examples from where I might have missed them in the book.
1) Do you think anyone can become a good philosopher, or is Sophie a special or unusual person? What special talents would it take to become a good philosopher, just being able to apply reasoning, or something else?
2) In the book, Sophie becomes disinterested in everyday activities, like playing badminton with Joanna after school. Why does she not realize that it's possible to enjoy life's simpler pleasures while simultaneously pursuing the answer's to life's great mysteries? What is keeping her from doing both?
3) Can a philosopher be a bit of both a rationalist and an empiricist at the same time? Does Sophie show evidence of being either or both?
4) Descartes believed that the concept of a perfect entity could only have originated from such an entity as God, rather than an imperfect entity such as a human being and this is how he arrives at proving the existence of God. In Sophie's lesson on Descartes, we learn that the leap is considered the weak spot in Descartes' philosophy. What evidence supports the agreement or disagreement of this evidence?
5) Was Marx a Marxist? Was Jesus a Christian? As ideologies are widely accepted, do they somehow become peverted? If so, why?
6) Albert tells Sophie that since her aunt doesn't like her job, she must not like herself. Is self-worth really that closely linked with work?
7) What did Sarte mean when he said, "man is condemned to be free"? Is this something most people would agree with?
8) Why did existentialism gain popularity after the horrors of WWII? What other examples of existentialism exist? Is it a cop-out of sorts or is it a realistic articulation of the modern human condition?
9) Which theory has had the most profound impact on the way human being think and live in the 21st century: Darwin's theory of evolution or Freud's theory of the unconscious? What examples of this appear in the book?
10) Which thinkers or ideas have shaped our society the most in recent years?