If Minds Had Toes

If you liked the idea behind Jostein Gaarder's seminal Sophie's World but find yourself slightly daunted by its thickness and sometimes didactic approach, this is for you.

If Minds Had Toes rests on a silly yet brilliant premise: there is an afterlife specifically devoted to housing dead philosophers; Socrates is the president of this land; he and the mysanthropic Wittgenstein enter a bet to decide once and for all whether philosophical vocation is a gift or a curse.

In order to prove their respective theses, an ordinary live boy is selected, and taken on a series of guided tours of the World of Ideas, where he is confronted by the great questions in a series of amusing yet provocative dialogues.

A good idea well-executed, this is Sophie's show more World for beginners - shorter, snappier, funny, even cute.

Full marks would have been awarded if there'd been more real dead philosophers: those that are there are there to provide ambience and comic relief; though they do this exceedingly well, it would have been more ambitious and gripping to have the thinkers behind the theories arguing for them. Still; it's but a small quibble: the book's well worth the time and grey cells. show less

Philosophy for Beginners, in the form of a novel. Socrates has run the World of Ideas for centuries, but when his authority is challenged by Ludwig Wittgenstein, they devise a contest: pull an everyman off the street (in this case, 15-year-old Ben, working in a fish and chip shop during the school holidays), expose him to philosophical concepts, and see if it improves his life. Lightweight and charming, and, in places, very funny

[i]If Minds Had Toes[/i] by Lucy Eyre falls into that mini-genre of philosophy teaching meets fiction, of which [i]Sophie's World[/i] is probably the most famous relatively recent example.

Philosophers when they die go to the World of Ideas, where they all sit around and argue about the meaning of life, play pool, and generally laze away their after life. They can watch the real world, but not participate. Socrates and Wittgenstein - fed up of their perpetually circular arguments about whether philosophy can actually make a difference to a single life, actually make you [i]happier[/i], decide on a bet: A mortal lad, Ben, will be brought to the World of Ideas, exposed to philosophical thinking, and see whether his life is better or not show more at the end of it. Lila, Socrates' secretary, is despatched to sort out the technicalities.

That's pretty much the plot. The bulk of the book is Ben being exposed to various 'standard' philosophical questions, usually tied to real life in some way, hears the opposing arguments, and tries to muddle through and work out what he thinks for himself. It's a sweet little book, but it's far more didactic in tone than its best-selling predecessor, and the central plot is much more there just as something to hang the various philosophy lectures and tutorials off of. Pleasantly written, a decent explanation of the basics of philosophy, some stray funny bits, and an overall positive message (I am sure you will not be surprised nor disappointed to learn that the book's conclusion comes down on the side of Socrates - philosophy [i]is[/i] inherently good for your soul), but nothing spectacular. It would be - as I am fairly sure it is intended - a good book for the adolescent just starting to think about some of the deeper questions of life if they were so inclined. show less

The premise of this novel is rather interesting. A british adolescent is lead to an alternative world where deceased philosophers hold fulll sway. The entrance to the world is reiscent of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I believe the authro is attempting to develope and interst in her readers in the subject of philosophy, with Socrates and Ludwig Wittgenstein taking center stage. It started out as kind of a fun read, but I discovered that I am really not intested in philosophical discourse. Towards the end, when some of the discourse turned to ethics, it became a bit more interesting. I think there might be people who might get intrigued by philopshy to pursue it more from reading this book, but I am not one of them.

I was steered to this book by my enthusiasm for Sophie's World, but after struggling with the poor writing for just a page or two, I put it down.

I gave up on this book. I couldn't be bothered enough to concentrate on it and realised I had read several pages and didn't have a clue what had been said on those pages.