Overview
A young girl named Sophie receives mysterious letters from a philosopher, taking her on a journey through the entire history of Western philosophy.
Gaarder was a Norwegian high-school philosophy teacher before Sophie's World made him famous. Published in 1991, the book is a history of Western philosophy wrapped in a young-adult novel about a fourteen-year-old girl named Sophie who receives anonymous philosophy lessons. It has sold more than forty million copies and has been translated into sixty languages.
Key Ideas
Philosophy begins with wonder
The most profound questions are the simplest ones children ask.
Ideas shape history
Each era's philosophy reflects and drives its political and cultural reality.
Question everything
The examined life requires constant questioning of assumptions.
Who should read this
Readers encountering philosophy for the first time, particularly teenagers. The fiction frame makes the history go down easily, and Gaarder covers a remarkable amount of ground — pre-Socratics to Sartre — without sacrificing too much accuracy. Also good for adults who want a gentle refresher on the whole tradition.
Who might skip it
Skip if you want rigorous philosophy — Gaarder simplifies heavily, and specialists will find the treatment thin. Skip also if the young-adult framing bothers you; the fictional story sometimes strains under the weight of the history it's supposed to carry.
The verdict
The best introductory history of Western philosophy for a general reader, and a book I've given as a gift many times. Gaarder's genius is the framing device — the philosophical puzzles inside the narrative give the ideas stakes that a textbook can't. The later chapters (19th and 20th century) are weaker than the ancient and medieval sections.
"The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder."
— Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
If you liked this
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell for the grown-up single volume. The Great Conversation by Norman Melchert for the textbook treatment.