Sophie, a young girl starts to get these anonymous letters that ask her questions and then they are followed by a package/letter. Each letter is a lesson about one or more philosophers, and they are in chronological order. These letter are first sent to her mailbox but later are sent by Hermes, a dog. At the same time she recieves these letters, she also finds postcards that are addressed to Hilde Møller Knag which appear to be from Hilde's father talking about her upcoming birthday. As time progresses, Sophie finally meets the anonymous person sending her these letters, Alberto Knox. Strange occurrences happen, like Sophie finding items that belong to Hilder. When Sophie is learning about Berkely, Alberto tells her that they only exist in the mind of Albert Knag, Hilde's father and the point of view switches to Hilde's. It starts with her receiving a letter from her father entilted "Sophie's World". Hilde reads that Sophie continues her lessons and Hilde becomes more and more convinced that Sophie exists in "real life". The book ends with Sophie and Alberto in a spirit realm where they can live among people but they cannot be seen. Sophie starts to learn how she can interfere in Hilde's life.
The book focuses on the history of philosophy and how a person has the right to do what they want with their lives, or freewill.
Curious/ Insightful: Sophie's wonder and curiousness is what moves along the story, and with each passage there is a sense of bettering one's life and outlook on it.
“Life is both sad and solemn. We are led into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other---and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived.”
“A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.”
“So now you must choose... Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so? To children, the world and everything in it is new, something that gives rise to astonishment. It is not like that for adults. Most adults accept the world as a matter of course. This is precisely where philosophers are a notable exception. A philosopher never gets quite used to the world. To him or her, the world continues to seem a bit unreasonable - bewildering, even enigmatic. Philosophers and small children thus have an important faculty in common. The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…”
