The book "Sophie's World" is a novel about the history of philosophy, which explains the history of philosophy through dialogues between a mysterious man and Sophie. This article extracts the main philosophical ideas from the book for readers who want to understand the history of philosophy but do not want to spend a lot of time reading this novel. The following are the main philosophical ideas in the book:
1. Myth
Before the emergence of science, people could only invent myths to explain the changes in nature.
2. Natural philosophers
The early Greek philosophers were concerned with the theme of nature and its cycles and changes, and therefore were called natural philosophers.
Thales: believed that water was the source of all things, and everything had god in it.
Anaximander: believed that the material that formed everything may not be something that has already been created, and this basic material cannot be as simple as water, but some kind of nameless substance.
Anaximenes: believed that the source of everything must be "air" or "gas". (The above three philosophers from Miletus believed that the world is made up of a basic substance)"
Parmenides: Nothing will change, so our sensory perception is unreliable.
Heraclitus: Everything changes ("everything flows"), and our sensory perception is reliable.
Empedocles: Nature consists of four "roots": earth, air, fire, and water. The two forces in nature - love and hate - bring things together and drive them apart, respectively.
Anaxagoras: Nature is made up of countless tiny particles that are invisible to the naked eye, and everything can be divided into smaller parts. Even in the smallest parts, there are components of other things (such as genes in cells or holograms).
Democritus: Nature is made up of infinitely small units that can come together and break apart repeatedly. Nothing will change, and nothing comes from nothing or disappears.
3. Fate
The ancient Greeks believed that fate not only controls individuals' lives but also shapes the course of history.
4. Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)
By pretending to be ignorant, Socrates forced the people he met to use their common sense, allowing him to continually expose weaknesses in their thinking. The wisest people are those who understand their own ignorance, and true knowledge comes from within rather than from the teachings of others.
5. Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
He was interested in the relationship between eternal and unchanging things and "flowing" things.
Plato's Theory of Forms: Behind the material world, there must be a reality (the world of Forms) that contains eternal and unchanging patterns behind various phenomena in nature. We cannot have true knowledge of things that constantly change. We can only have opinions or views on specific things in the sensory world. What we can truly understand is only what we can comprehend with reason.
Humans are creatures with dual properties. Our bodies are fluid, and senses based on the body are unreliable. But we also have an immortal soul, which is the realm of reason. Since the soul is not material, it can explore the world of Forms. Plato believes that all phenomena in nature are only imperfect copies of eternal forms or patterns in the world of Forms and every living thing is a flawed replica of the eternal forms in the world of Forms.
6. Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
He believed that our reason is completely empty before sensory experience of various things, and therefore humans do not have innate "ideas". Every change in nature is the result of matter transforming from "potentiality" to "actualization". The "form" of a thing not only explains its potentiality but also its limits.
He believes that every natural thing has a purpose, which is the cause of its existence.
He thoroughly classified things in nature.
He advocated the doctrine of the mean, stating that humans should not be cowardly or rash but courageous. They should not be stingy or wasteful but generous.
7. Greek Culture
The characteristic of Greek culture is that the boundaries between countries and cultures are blurred.
The religions formed during the Greek cultural period share a common feature, which is that they often teach people how to obtain redemption and avoid death.
People at this time believed that the wisdom of philosophy not only had its own benefits but should also enable humanity to escape pessimism and fear of death. Therefore, the boundary between religion and philosophy gradually disappeared.
Greek science was also influenced by various cultures. Alexandria had a large-scale library, making it a major center for mathematics, astronomy, biology, and medicine.
Greek philosophy was devoted to solving what true happiness is and how to achieve it. There were four schools of thought:
Cynicism: Believes that people need not worry about their health, should not suffer because of aging, sickness, and death, and should not worry about the pain of others and sacrifice themselves. Today, the meaning of the term "cynicism" has become contempt for genuine human emotions, implying an attitude and behavior indifferent to the suffering of others.
Stoicism: Believes that each person is a small part of universal knowledge, and each person is like a "small universe", which is a microcosm of the "great universe". All humans are subject to the governance of divine law. In their eyes, the legal provisions of various countries at that time were just imperfect laws modeled after natural laws.
Epicureanism: Emphasizes that when we consider whether an action is pleasurable, we must also consider its possible side effects. It believes that when pursuing temporary happiness, we must consider whether there are other ways to obtain greater, more lasting, or stronger happiness. In addition, if we want to live happily, we must follow the principles of self-regulation, restraint, and peace advocated by the ancient Greeks. Our desires must be restrained, and a peaceful state of mind can help us endure pain. As the saying goes: "God is not to be feared, death is not to be worried about, misfortune is easy to endure, and happiness is easy to pursue." However, after Epicureanism, many adherents gradually indulged in self-indulgence. Their motto was "seize the day, enjoy life", and the word "Epicurean" has now become derogatory, used to describe those who specialize in pursuing pleasure.
Neoplatonism: Represented by Plotinus, he believed that the world spans two poles. One end is the divine light he called "God", and the other end is complete darkness, which cannot receive any light from God. However, his point of view is that this dark world actually does not exist, it is only lacking in the illumination of light. Time only exists with God. Just like light gradually weakens and eventually goes out, there is also a corner of the world where divine light cannot shine. According to him, the soul is illuminated by this divine light, while matter is in a non-existent dark world. The form of the natural world is slightly illuminated by the divine light.
8. Middle Ages (4th-14th century)
The Middle Ages was a long "thousand-year night"- a dark period that enveloped Europe between ancient times and the Renaissance. The Roman Empire split into three different cultures: Latin Christendom in Western Europe, with Rome as its capital; Greek Christendom in Eastern Europe, with Constantinople as its capital; and Arabic-speaking Islamic culture in North Africa and the Middle East.
Two medieval philosophers:
St. Augustine: Christianized Plato's philosophy and pointed out the limits of reason when it comes to religious questions. Christianity is a divine mystery that we can only understand through faith. If we believe in Christ, God will "illuminate" our souls and give us a magical understanding of Him. He believed that Plato's concept of "ideal forms" existed in God's mind and preserved Plato's views on "ideal forms."
He argued that there is an insurmountable distance between God and the world. He emphasized that human beings are spiritual creatures with both bodies and souls.
St. Thomas Aquinas: Christianized Aristotle's philosophy. He entered the philosophy world of Aristotle and used his words to interpret the Bible, thus cleverly blending faith and knowledge together. He believed that philosophy and reason were not conflicting with Christian revelation and faith. In fact, Christian doctrine and philosophical truths often coincide. Therefore, the truth we deduce through reason is often identical to the truth mentioned in the Bible.
9. Renaissance (14th-16th centuries)
The Renaissance refers to the cultural prosperity that began at the end of the 14th century. It was a rebirth of ancient art and culture, and more importantly, a revival of humanism, returning to the source of humanism. In the Middle Ages, God was the starting point for everything. Humanism in the Renaissance put humans at the starting point. At that time, people believed that they were not only human beings but also unique individuals. The goal was to break down all barriers and taboos, which was different from the emphasis on tranquility, moderation, and restraint in ancient humanism.
They believed that studying natural phenomena must be based on observation, experience, and experimentation, called "empirical method."
10. Baroque period (17th century)
"Baroque" originally meant "irregular shape of pearls." The main feature of the Baroque period (17th century) was the tension presented in various contradictory contrasts.
11. Descartes (1596-1650, Rationalism)
Rationalists believe that the human mind is the foundation of all knowledge.
He advocated that only reason can give us true knowledge, and senses are not so reliable. Everything should be doubted at first, and one thing is certain - he doubts. When he doubts, he must be thinking, and because he is thinking, he must be a being that thinks, that is, "I think, therefore I am."
In his mind, he knew very clearly what the perfect entity was, and he had always had this concept. But he believed that this concept obviously could not come from himself because the concept of a perfect entity could not come from an imperfect person. Therefore, it must come from the perfect entity itself, that is, God. Therefore, for Descartes, the existence of God is an obvious fact, just as a thinking being necessarily exists.
He claimed that "God can guarantee" that everything we know through reasoning will correspond to the real world. The external real world has several mathematical properties that we can perceive through reason, namely the properties of "quantity." As for the properties of "quality," they are related to our sensory experience and are therefore not sufficient to describe the real world.
Dualism: Descartes declared that there are two different forms of reality or "entities" in the universe. One entity is called thought or "soul," and the other is called "extension" or matter. The soul is purely conscious and does not occupy space, so it cannot be further decomposed into smaller units. Matter is purely extended and occupies space, so it can be further decomposed into smaller units but has no consciousness. Descartes believed that both entities came from God because only God was an independent existence that did not belong to anything. However, "thought" and "extension" have no contact with each other. Thoughts are not affected by matter, and changes in matter are not affected by thoughts.
12. Spinoza (1632-1677, Rationalism)
One of his main philosophical ideas is to view things from an eternal perspective. He reminds us that we are only a small part of life in nature and a part of the vast universe.
He was a pantheist, believing that nature itself is God. God is not everything, but everything is in God's hands.
Monism: He simplifies the relationship between nature and all things into a single entity. He believes that everything in nature is either thought or extension. Every phenomenon we see in daily life is just a different mode of thought attribute or extension attribute. The so-called "mode" is a special way in which entities, God, or nature express themselves.
God governs the world through natural laws. Therefore, God is the inner cause of everything. This means that every event that happens in the material world has its necessity. Our freedom is subject to our inner potential and external opportunities.
13. Locke (1632-1704, Empiricism)
Empiricists are those who obtain all knowledge about the world from sensory experience.
He believes that before our senses perceive anything, our mind is a blank slate. He divides the nature of sensory qualities into two types: "primary" and "secondary". "Primary qualities" refer to the properties of the extended world, such as weight, motion, and quantity. "Secondary qualities" refer to feelings such as color, smell, taste, and sound, which do not truly reflect the intrinsic nature of things themselves but only reflect the effects of external entities on our senses.
Locke first emphasized the separation of legislative power and executive power to prevent despotic politics.
14. Hume (1711-1776, Empiricism)
He first determined that humans have two kinds of perceptions: impressions and ideas. "Impressions" refer to direct perceptions of the outside world. "Ideas" refer to memories of impressions. He further emphasizes that impressions and ideas may be single or complex and that nothing is created by our minds. Our minds only put different things together to create a false "idea".
He believes that our speech and behavior are determined by emotions. Because we do not act on the basis of reason but on the basis of sympathy with others' situations. Legally, only those who have lost their reason may be exempt from punishment, but no one has ever been exempt from punishment because they have lost their emotions.
15. Berkeley (1685-1753, Empiricism)
He believed in the existence of the human "spirit". He believes that all our ideas have an unconscious cause. But this cause is not material but spiritual.
Our soul may be the cause of all the concepts that form ourselves, just like when we dream. But there is only one other will or spirit in the world that can form all the concepts that make up this "formal" world. All things exist because of this spirit. This spirit is the cause of "everything in everything," and it is also the presence of all things. This spirit is God.
16. Enlightenment (18th century)
Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau were important figures in the Enlightenment movement. At this time, emerging natural sciences had already proven that nature is governed by reason, so philosophers felt responsible for establishing the foundations of morality, religion, and ethics based on human rationality. The Enlightenment movement was thus born.
17. Kant (1724-1804)
Kant refers to "time" and "space" as our two "intuitive forms". He emphasizes that these two "forms" in our minds exist prior to any experience. In other words, before experiencing anything, we already know that what we perceive will be an event occurring in time and space. We cannot take off the "glasses" of reason. Time and space belong to human conditions. Time and space are ways in which humans perceive, not properties of the material world.
Human perception of the world is influenced by two factors. One is external situations that we must know through our senses, which we can call raw materials for knowledge. The other factor is internal situations of humans, such as the fact that everything we perceive occurs in time and space and follows the unchanging laws of causality. We can call it the form of knowledge.
"There are two things that fill me with awe, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me. Both bear witness to the fact that God is above me and yet also within me."
18. Romanticism (Late 18th century - Mid 19th century)
Initially, it was a reaction against the Enlightenment philosophers' emphasis on reason. It believed that individuals could interpret life completely according to their own desires and ways.
Romanticists viewed nature as an organism, a whole that constantly develops its inner potential. Nature is like a flower that continuously stretches its branches and petals, and like a poet who incessantly sings poems.
19. Hegel (1770-1831)
Hegel's "world spirit" or "world reason" refers to the totality of human ideas. Here, he says that the world spirit refers to human life, thought, and culture.
Hegel said that "truth is subjective," and he did not recognize any truth outside of human reason. He said that all knowledge is human knowledge.
The history of thought (or reason) is like a river. People's ways of thinking are influenced by traditional trends and current material conditions, like flowing water. Therefore, one can never claim that any one kind of thought is always correct. It may be correct from where you stand, but conflicting ideas will arise, creating tension between them until someone comes up with an idea that integrates the strengths of both.
Negative thinking means trying to find deficiencies in what others say, but when we find flaws in an argument, we also keep its merits.
20. Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
He believed that the only important thing in the world is one's own existence, and the only real truth belongs to the individual. We need only find those truths that give meaning to our lives.
Kierkegaard believed that there are three stages of life: the aesthetic stage, the ethical stage, and the religious stage. Those who live in the aesthetic stage live for the present and seize every opportunity for pleasure. Such people live entirely in the sensory world and are slaves to their own desires and emotions. Those in the ethical stage take life seriously and consistently make moral choices. People should strive to live according to moral principles, and what is important is not what one believes to be right or wrong, but that one begins to care about the ethical implications of things. The ethical stage is also not the final stage; even a dedicated and conscientious person may become bored with this way of life and return to the aesthetic stage. Some people progress to the religious stage, where they embrace faith.
21. Marx (1818-1883)
Marx referred to the material, economic, and social conditions as the basis of society, and to social ideas, political systems, legal regulations, religion, morality, art, philosophy, and science as the superstructure of society. The superstructure of a society can reflect its base. He believed that the economic forces of a society were what promoted change and pushed history forward.
The means of production refer to the natural resources and conditions that a society can use. The tools of production refer to equipment, tools, and machines. Production relations refer to the way people divide labor and distribute property. The political situation and ideology of a society are determined by its mode of production. Ideas of right and wrong are products of the social foundation. The standards of right and wrong in a society are mainly determined by the ruling class, because human history is a history of class struggle.
22. Darwin (1809-1882)
The "raw material" for the evolution of living beings on Earth is the constant appearance of individual differences within the same species, combined with the large number of offspring that only a small fraction can survive. The actual "mechanism" (or driving force) of evolution is the process of natural selection in the struggle for survival. This process ensures that the fittest or most suitable survivors will emerge.
Each of us is a small ship sailing through life, carrying our genes. When we safely deliver the cargo to the next port, then we have not lived in vain.
23. Freud (1856-1939)
He believed that human consciousness was only a small part of oneself, and that there existed a subconscious beyond human awareness.
Our dreams are not accidental. Our subconscious tries to communicate with us through dreams and our consciousness."
Comments