Sophie's World

Jostein Gaarder’s novel Sophie’s World has taught many of us about our own lives. We have learned about the many ideas that philosopher’s and scientists before us had. By reading this novel we are also thinking about ourselves. We actually think about why we are alive and what we have to live for. We start to create our own beliefs and understandings from the ideas of others.

One topic I found interesting in the novel were the contradicting ideas of Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle supported the idea that senses are more important than reasoning. He believed that we understand the world by how we feel about it. Plato believed that we understood our lives and the world by reason. In my opinion I support Aristotle and how we view the world from our senses and parts of Plato’s beliefs. I believe that senses are important and help us perceive the world a certain way. We first view the world by how we see and feel about it. Although I support Aristotle’s belief I understand Plato’s belief as well. Plato thought that we cannot trust our senses and we should think about the world. In many cases people say that we should not do anything based on our emotions, so does this mean that our emotions can deceive us? It might be depending on the situation. Both senses and reasons are important and they should both be used equally.