1. Chapter 3: The Myths
1.1. A precarious balance between the forces of good and evil.
1.2. There is no letter for Sophie in the morning, but there is after school: The Mythological World Picture.
1.2.1. Philosophy refers to the entirely new way of thinking developed in Greece 600 years before the birth of Jesus.
1.2.1.1. Until philosophy, everybody explained the mysteries of the world with various religions.
1.2.1.1.1. Thor is the Norse god of fertility, because he was thought to have made it rain and the sun was his chariot crossing the sky.
1.2.1.1.2. Asgard, Midgard, and Utgard are the three realms.
1.2.1.1.3. Frost giants of Utgard steal Thor's hammer, this explains the turning of the seasons.
1.2.1.1.4. People develop religious rites to please the gods. Sacrifices would temporarily increase the powers of the gods.
1.2.1.2. Philosophers tried to prove religious explanations incorrect.
1.2.2. Around 700 B.C. Homer and Hesiod document Greek mythology.
1.2.2.1. Received criticism for making the gods too human-like.
1.2.2.1.1. Myths are said to simply be human notions.
1.2.2.1.2. Gods squabble and fight and have rivalries between one-another.
1.2.3. Xenophanes
1.2.3.1. Greek philosopher from 570 B.C.
1.2.3.2. Proposed that "men have created the gods in their own image . . . They believe the gods were born and have bodies and clothes and languages just as we have" page 26.
1.3. Sophie tries to forget what she learned at school and instead tries to reason for herself.
1.3.1. She comes up with her own idea for why the seasons change.
1.3.2. She likes her own ideas and believes that she would have believed them had she not been pre-conditioned.
1.3.3. She comes to understand that people needed reasons for what happens on Earth.
2. Chapter 2: The Top Hat
2.1. The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty to wonder.
2.2. Sophie is very bored during school and seems to have lost interest in activities that were once very pleasing to her.
2.2.1. Alienates her friend Joanna.
2.3. The first Philosophy Course arrives!: What is Philosophy?
2.3.1. Philosophers are people who seek answers to the "unanswerable."
2.3.1.1. Philosophy concerns everyone.
2.3.1.2. "What is the most important thing in life? . . . when these basic needs have been satisfied--will there still be something that everyone needs?" page 12.
2.3.1.3. Philosophy is not a casual or shallow interest.
2.3.1.4. "How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? . . . how ought we to live?" page 13.
2.3.1.5. Everyone must seek his or her own answers.
2.3.2. Search for truth resembles a detective story.
2.3.2.1. People have differing opinions.
2.3.2.2. There is one true answer, but we might never know it.
2.3.3. The world is basically a white rabbit that has been pulled out of a magician's hat.
2.3.3.1. We know that we have been tricked, so we ask, "How?"
2.3.3.2. We exist deep down in the rabbit's fur, desensitized to the incredulity of the world, but philosophers attempt to make it to the tips of the hairs.
2.4. Another piece of the philosophy course: A Strange Creature.
2.4.1. Newborns are able to wonder because the world is so foreign to their senses.
2.4.1.1. Philosophers strive to be like this, always unfamiliar with the world.
2.4.2. The world eventually becomes a habit; this is bad!
2.4.3. Humans have different reactions to events based on what is known or not known.
2.4.4. This mysterious philosophy course is free!
2.4.4.1. Thank goodness!
2.5. Sophie totally weirds her mom out.
2.5.1. Sophie feels that the philosopher has saved her from the realm of the normal and usual.
2.5.2. Sophie feels that her mother is a fool for not being filled with wonder with the world.
2.5.3. Sophie's mother is afraid that Sophie has been doing drugs.
3. Chapter 1: The Garden of Eden
3.1. At some point something must have come from nothing.
3.2. Sophie receives her first letter!
3.2.1. Who are you?
3.2.1.1. Sophie begins to think; she truly has no idea how to answer the seemingly simple question.
3.2.1.1.1. "What if she had been given a different name? Anne Knutsen, for instance. Would she then have been someone else?" page 3.
3.2.1.1.2. Sophie wonders whether or not it is strange that she does not know who she is.
3.2.1.1.3. She finds it strange and unfair that she had no say in who she was at birth. She didn't choose her family or her looks, nor even to be a human being.
3.2.2. Sophie's curiosity is piqued by the mysterious letter.
3.3. Sophie goes out to the garden.
3.3.1. She realizes once again that the world is amazing.
3.3.2. Is there a life after death?
3.3.2.1. Sophie's grandmother had died not six months before.
3.3.2.2. Sophie is unable to imagine not being alive.
3.3.2.3. "You can't experience being alive without realizing that you have to die" page 5.
3.4. The second letter arrives!
3.4.1. Where does the world come from?
3.4.1.1. Sophie feels that it is not right to live in the world without inquiring where it came from.
3.4.1.2. She believes that no one can truly know.
3.4.1.3. Sophie is very confused and as a result goes to the den.
3.4.2. Either something must have always existed or something came from nothing.
3.5. A third letter.
3.5.1. Sophie's father sends a birthday card to a Hilde Moller Knag.
3.5.2. Not a letter from the same mysterious philosopher.
4. Chapter 4: The Natural Philosophers
4.1. Nothing can come from nothing.
4.2. Sophie's mom finds another letter; Sophie makes her think that it's a love letter so as not to arouse suspicion.
4.2.1. "Is there a basic substance that everything is made of? Can water turn into wine? How can earth and water produce a live frog?
4.2.1.1. Sophie thinks that these questions are stupid for whatever reason.
4.3. Another brown envelope.
4.3.1. The Philosophers' Project
4.3.1.1. Different philosophers busy themselves with different topics. One cannot hope to cover all areas of questioning.
4.3.1.2. Women were pretty much exempt from thinking, resulting in a great loss of experience.
4.3.1.3. No homework! Sweet! No math questions or verb conjugations.
4.3.2. The Natural Philosophers
4.3.2.1. Greeks generally believed that "something had always existed.
4.3.2.2. Philosophers questioned the transformations in nature and how one thing could possibly come from another thing.
4.3.2.2.1. "there must be a basic substance that was the hidden cause of all changes in nature. There had to be 'something' that all things come from and return to" page 31.
4.3.2.2.2. We are not necessarily interested in what the philosophers' conclusions were, but their thought processes in getting there. Not the end, but the means.
4.3.2.3. Philosophy separates from religion. Philosophers use scientific reasoning.
4.3.2.4. What little we know about the natural philosophers is found in Aristotle's writings.
4.3.3. Three Philosophers from Miletus
4.3.3.1. Thales
4.3.3.1.1. Thought that water was the source of all things.
4.3.3.1.2. Also said that "all things are made of gods."
4.3.3.2. Anaximander
4.3.3.2.1. Believed that our world was one of many that dissolve and evolve in the "boundless."
4.3.3.3. Anaximenes
4.3.3.3.1. Thought that everything must find its source in air or vapor.
4.3.4. Nothing Can Come From Nothing
4.3.4.1. "The Problem of Change": How could one substance suddenly become another?
4.3.4.1.1. Parminedes
4.3.4.1.2. Heraclitus
4.3.4.2. Four Basic Elements
4.3.4.2.1. Parminedes and Heraclitus were opposite in their beliefs.
4.3.4.2.2. Empedocles
4.3.4.3. Something of Everything in Everything
4.3.4.3.1. Anaxagoras
4.4. The Greek philosophers made all of their discoveries based on their own reasoning abilities. They did not have the high-tech tools that we have now.
4.4.1. Sophie likes philosophy because it's all logical; she can follow it through her own reasoning without extra knowledge.