Interessantes Thema, schlechte Literatur: An dem Buch ist die thematische Hinwendung zur Philosophie bemerkenswert. Schade nur, dass dies in einer solch hölzernen literarischen Umsetzung geschieht. Die Geschichte wirkt konstruiert; als Mittel zum Zweck, um der schulmeisterlich vermittelten Philosophie irgendeinen Rahmen zu geben. Für die niedrige literarische Qualität nur zwei Sterne.

I could not get through this book, and I went on to be a philosophy major. At the same time too dumbed down and too boring. ( )

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder turned out to be a wonderful journey into the history of philosophy.

A 14 year old Norwegian schoolgirl, Sophie, comes home from school and finds in her mailbox, an unstamped letter addressed to her contains a note that just asks "Who are you?". A couple of minutes later, she finds another letter in her mailbox addressed to her, containing yet another note with a simple question "Where does the world come from?. And still yet later on in the day, she finds in her mailbox, a postcard addressed to someone named Hilde, but in care of her address.

And so the letters prick Sophie's curiousity and gets her to start thinking about who's sending these letters to her, what they mean, and really.... where DOES the world come from?

A few days later, Sophie receives a package and therein begins her introduction to philosophy. We are taken on a journey tracing the history of philosophy from the natural philosophers in Greece back in about 500B.C., to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the moving through the ages and continents to St Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Marx, Darwin and Freud.

For anyone looking for an easy way to learn philosophy or interested in a refresher course in philosophy, this is a good book to pick up. Sophie's child-like wide-eyed curiousity and eagerness to explore new ways of thinking put a fresh new face on the subject.

And by the way, who's Hilde and why is someone sending postcards for her to Sophie? The answer to this puzzle is quite the surprise. ( )

Brilliant! The author demonstrates his thorough understanding of the implications of epistemological and metaphysical thinking by wrapping a detailed, engaging and rapid review of the history of philosophy in an through-the-looking-glass mystery. The logical consistency is impressive. ( )

Loved this book. It was sort of a book within a book. Very well written ( )