1. Philosophers to Know
1.1. Aristotle
1.1.1. Greek, taught many people, and was one of the first phiosophers.
1.2. Came From Miletus
1.2.1. Thales
1.2.1.1. Calculated the height of an Egyptian pyramid using his shadow and the pyramid's. Also calculated the exact time of a solar eclipse in the year 585 B.C. Thales thought that the source for all life was water. Life originated with water, like when the Nile would flood and the crops would begin to grow, and life returns to water when it dissolves.
1.2.2. Anaximander
1.2.2.1. Thought that our world was one of many worlds that evolved and dissolved within something he called the boundless. Thought that the substance "which is the source of all things had to be something other than the things created. Because created things are limited, that which comes before and after them must be 'boundless'" (35).
1.2.3. Anaximenes
1.2.3.1. Thought that everything originated from the air or "vapor". Anaximenes was familiar with Anaximander's theory with water as the source of evolution, but Anaximenes believed that water came from condensed air and when water evaporates, it becomes a vapor. He also thought that earth was condensed air as he may have seen dirt and sand pressed out of ice. And fire was merely rarefied air, so Anaximenes had come up with the source of earth, water, and fire.
1.3. Eleatics
1.3.1. Parminedes
1.3.1.1. Was a philosopher, on of the Eleatics, who thought that everything that exists now had always existed. He thought that nothing could come from nothing and something could not dissipate into nothing. These ideas were not entirely alien to the Greeks at the time, as they believed that everything that existed in the world was everlasting. He even took this idea further and said that there was no real change in the world or anywhere as it was impossible for something to be anything other than what it was.
1.3.1.2. Parminedes was caught between listening to his senses, the fact that nature constantly changes about him even though he cannot explain why, and his reasoning which told him that there was no way for nature to do that and out sense were lying to us. He thought that "As a philosopher, he saw it as his task to expose all forms of perceptual illusion" (36). "This unshakable faith in human reason is called rationalism. A rationalist is someone who believes that human reason is the primary source of our knowledge of the world.
1.4. Heraclitus
1.4.1. From Ephesus in Asia Minor, he believed that there was constant change, or flow, within nature and that this concept was the most basic characteristic of nature and the world around him. "'Everything flows', said Heraclitus. Everything is in constant flux and movement, nothing is abiding. Therefore we 'cannot step twice into the same river'" (36). Heraclitus noted that the characterization of the world is in opposites. "If we were never ill, we would not know what it was to be well" (36). He thought that if there was not this constant change within the world, it would cease to exist.
1.5. Empedocles, from Sicily
1.5.1. He was the philosopher who settled the confusion amongst the masses with the conflicting arguments of both Heraclitus and Parmenides. He said that the problem with their claims was that they said that there was only one main element, Empedocles proposed that the one-element was the problem and that it had to be discarded in order to get things to start making sense. He also came up with the idea that living objects, or any objects for that matter, cannot be created from water or air alone, so he said that there were four "roots", or base elements, from which life and things originated. These four are, earth, air, fire, and water. Empedocles could have witnessed a piece of wood burning to develop his theory: the crackling and sputtering of the wood is the "water", the "fire" is easily seen, the "air" is the smoke rising up, and the "earth" is the ash that remains once the wood is burnt.
1.5.2. Empedocles had the four roots, but he also thought that there were two forces that either brought things together, love, and the force that separates them, strife. Also believed that the eyes had earth, air, fire, and water inside them so that he could see all of nature.
1.6. Anaxagoras
1.6.1. Did not believe that the four "roots" could be combined to create such things as bone and blood. Believed that everything was made up of tiny, unseen, particles that have part of the whole inside them. Much like today's studies of DNA, each skin cell is part of the human, but it also contains the DNA for the entire human body as well, not just the one skin cell.
2. Life Before the Letters
2.1. She didn't question or wonder at her surroundings.
2.2. Was unaware of how much time we waste on trivial questions and concerns.
2.3. Went with the flow of the society.
2.4. Life is much more black and white.
3. Life After the First Letters
3.1. She felt as if she was reborn, looking at the world with a fresh set of eyes.
3.1.1. Life becomes much more "colorful" than before.
3.2. Discovered that the world around her was filled with beautiful and wonderful things.
3.2.1. Wonders at the "simple" things that offer the most questions, yet most seem to ignore, or accept it as the norm. ("The child looks up and says 'Bow-wow' every time it sees a dog....We who are older and wiser may feel some what exhausted by the child's enthusiasm....We have seen a dog before" (Gaarder 16).
3.2.1.1. As a side-note-connection-thing, there are some parallels between the idea of becoming more like a child, with regards to asking questions and wondering, as with the Bible's recommendation of becoming innocent and unbiased, like children.
4. Relationship With Friends and Family
4.1. Like the analogy of the philosophers living on the ends of the rabbit's hairs while the rest stay below, Sophie's relationship with her friend, Joanna. Sophie got mad at Joanna when Joanna did not understand what Sophie was talking about and Joanna stalked off, angrily. "Sophie regretted having been mean to her. But what else could she have said....Would Joanna have understood?" (13).
4.2. Her mom is not around often as she is normally at work and her dad is away, so when her mother gets asked "Mom--don't you think it's astonishing to be alive?" (21), Sophie's mother thinks that she's on drugs of some sort and does not think about the question Sophie asked, only that it was a strange question.
4.2.1. Also, though the teachers are not really friends or family of Sophie's, they lose their credibility for Sophie's attention as Sophie has moved on to higher-level thinking questions.
5. Philosophy (General Notes)
5.1. Each Philosopher, regardless of the time or age, has his or her own has their own project. Their Project is what they are trying to solve, what "each particular philosopher is especially concerned with finding out" (32).
5.1.1. In Sophie's case, she was asked by the letters "How can earth and water produce a live frog?" (31).