… at some point something must have come
from nothing…
Joanna – compared the human mind to an
advanced robot
Captain’s Bend – sharp bend at the end of the
road
Sophie’s Father – captain of a big oil tanker
Address on the envelope: “Sophie Amundsen, 3
Clover Close”
Questions:
Who are you?
Where does the world come from?
Problems (ni Sophie):
Who put the letters in the mailbox
The answers to the questions
Who is Hilde Moller Knag
Menagerie – collection of animals
Goldfish: Goldtop, Red Ridinghood, Black Jack
Budgerigars: Smitt, Smule
Tortoise: Govinda
Marmalade Cat: Sherekan
Lillemor – other name her father thought of
naming Sophie
“You can’t experience being alive without
realizing that you have to die. But it’s just as
impossible to realize you have to die without
thinking how incredibly amazing it is to be alive”
… the only thing we require to be good
philosophers is the faculty of wonder…
“Course in Philosophy, Handle with care” –
written on the big brown envelope
The best way of approaching philosophy
is to ask a few philosophical questions (i.e. How
was the world created?, Is there a life after
death?, etc.)
A Greek philosopher who lived more
than two thousand years ago believed that
philosophy had its origin in man's sense of
wonder.
Philosophy is compared to watching a
magic trick
The only thing we require to be good
philosophers is the faculty of wonder
… a precarious balance between the forces of
good and evil…
Mythological World Picture – contained in the
brown envelope
Myth – a story about the gods which sets out to
explain why life is as it is; an attempt of
explanation of something
Thor-don – thunder in Norwegian meaning
Thor’s roar
Thor – god of fertility
Midgard – kingdom in the middle
Asgard – domain of the gods
Utgard – domain of the treacherous giants
Freyja – goddess of fertility
Rites – various religious ceremonies
Offering – the most significant religious
ceremony in Norse times
Thrym – king of the giants
Jotunheim – land of the giants
Homer and Hesiod – wrote down the Greek
mythology (700 B.C.)
Xenophanes – said that men have created the
gods in their own image
The aim of the early Greek philosophers
was to find natural, rather than supernatural,
explanations for natural processes
… nothing can come from nothing…
Questions:
Is there a basic substance that
everything else is made of?
Can water turn into wine?
How can earth and water produce a live
frog!
Philosopher’s project – what each particular
philosopher is especially concerned with finding
out
Natural Philosophers – mainly concerned with
the natural world and its processes and assumed
that “something” had always existed
Thales (from Miletus) – believed that all life
originated from water; calculated the height of a
pyramid by measuring its shadow at the precise
moment when the length of his own shadow was
equal to his height
Anaximander (from Miletus) – said that our
world is only one of a myriad of worlds that
evolve and dissolve in something he called the
boundless
Anaximenes (from Miletus) – thought that the
source of all things must be air or vapor
Parmenides – everything that exists had always
existed; there is no such thing as actual change;
nothing can come out of nothing and nothing
that exists can become nothing; nature is in a
constant state of flux
Rationalism – unshakable faith in human reason
Rationalist – someone who believes that human
reason is the primary source of knowledge in the
world
Heraclitus – everything flows; We cannot step
twice into the same river. When I step into the
river for the second time, neither I nor the river
are the same; the world is characterized by
opposites
Empedocles – agreed with Parmenides with
nothing changes and agreed with Heraclitus that
we must trust our senses; nature consisted of
four elements(roots): earth, air, fire and water
Anaxagoras – nature is built up of an infinite
number of minute particles invisible to the eye;
called these minuscule particles seeds; there is
something of everything in everything
… the most ingenious toy in the world…
Question:
Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in
the world?
Democritus – assumed that everything was built
up of tiny invisible blocks which are eternal and
immutable called atoms; nature’s block had to
be eternal – because nothing can come from
nothing; everything in nature flowed since
forms come and go but behind everything that
flowed there were some eternal and immutable
things that did not flow
Atom – ‘a-tom’ means uncuttable; eternal,
immutable, indivisible
… the “fortune teller” is trying to foresee
something that is really quite foreseeable…
Sophie had been looking at the mailbox
for the one who sends the letter but the next
letter was sent at the front step of the door. The
envelope was wet around the edges and had two
little holes
Questions:
Do you believe in Fate?
Is sickness the punishment of the gods?
What forces govern the course of
history?
If you believe in Christianity or Islam, it
was called faith. But if you believed in astrology
of Friday the thirteenth, it was a superstition
Materialist – does not believe in faith
Sophie wrote an invitation to the
philosopher to come for coffee. Signed at the
bottom:
Thanking you in advance, I remain
Your attentive student,
Sophie Amundsen (aged 14)
And addressed it: To the philosopher
Fatalism – the belief that whatever happens is
predestined
Fortune-teller – trying to foresee something that
is really quite unforeseeable
Oracle at Delphi
Apollo – god of the oracle
Pythia – Apollo’s priestess
Know Thyself! – written over the entrance to the
temple at Delphi
Herodotus and Thucydides – best known Greek
historians
The Greeks believed that sickness could
be ascribed to divine intervention
Influenza – malign influence from the stars
Hippocrates – founder of Greek medicine;
moderation and healthy lifestyle
Sophie found a red silk scarf
… wisest is she who knows she does not know…
Alberto Knox – name of the philosopher sending
the letters

Contents of the back of the letter:
Is there such a thing as natural
modesty?
Wisest is she who knows she does not
know…
True insight comes from within…
He who knows what is right will do
right.
Modesty – old-fashioned word for shyness
Hermes – name of the messenger dog of the
philosopher; messenger of the gods in Greek
mythology, god of seafarers; hermetic means
hidden or inaccessible
Three Great Classical Philosophers: Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle
Pre-Socratics – natural philosophers; lived before
Socrates
Democritus – died some years after Socrates
Athens – center of Greek culture
Sophists – sophist means a wise and informed
person; made a living out of teaching for money
Protagoras (a Sophist) – man is the measure of
all things the quest on of whether a thing is right
or wrong, good or bad, must always be
considered in relation to a person's needs.
Agnostic – a person who is unable to say
categorically whether or not the gods or God
exists
Socrates – spent most of his life in the city
squares and marketplaces talking to people;
[Referring to Socrates] You can seek him in the
present, you can seek him in the past, but you
will never find his equal; discussed instead of
lecturing; asked questions; mother was a
midwife; said he had a divine voice inside him;
accused of introducing new gods and corrupting
the youth; condemned to drink hemlock; did not
teach for money
Socratic irony – pretending to be dumber than
he was to force people to use their common
sense
Plato – student of Socrates who wrote about
his(Socrates) life
Cicero – Socrates called philosophy down from
the sky and established her in the towns and
introduced her into homes and forced her to
investigate life, ethics, good and evil
Socrates called himself a philosopher in
the true sense of the word; one who loves
wisdom. A philosopher knows that in reality he
knows very little that is why he constantly strives
to achieve true insight. Socrates said “Only one
thing only I know, and that is that I know
nothing”. Socrates was the joker(cards) in Athens
Right insight leads to the right action. The
ability to distinguish between right and wrong
lies in the people’s reason and not in society
No one could possibly be happy if they
acted against their better judgment
… several tall buildings had risen from the
ruins…
Sophie found a video cassette at the den.
Acropolis – means citadel; the city on the hill
Xerxes – Persian king who plundered Athens
and burned all old wooden buildings of
Acropolis
Parthenon – means the Virgin’s Place; in honor
of Athene, the patron goddess of Athens
Aristophanes – wrote a spiteful comedy about
Socrates as the buffoon of Athens
Theater – comes from an old Greek word
meaning to see
Areopagos – the hill where the Athenian high
court of justice passed judgment in murder trials
The old buildings rose from the ruins
Socrates – (description) had a long unkempt
beard, a snub nose, eyes like gimlets, and chubby
cheeks
Plato – (description) handsome young man
Questions (From Plato):
How can a baker bake fifty absolutely
identical cookies?
Why all horses are the same?
Decide whether you think that man has
an immortal soul
Say whether men and women are
equally sensible
… a longing return to the realm of the soul…
Sophie’s answer to the questions:
 If a baker makes fifty absolutely outside but is killed like what happened to
identical cookies, he must be using the same Socrates; found in Plato’s dialogue the Republic
pastry mold for all of them.
Sophie thought that no two horses were Body Soul Virtue State
the same but she remembered that like the Head reason Wisdom Rulers
cookies, none was exactly like the others but Chest Will Courage Auxiliaries
still, everyone could see that they were – in a abdomen Appetite temperance laborers
way – “exactly the same”
Does man have an immortal soul? If A state that does not train women is like a man
man had an immortal soul, one would have to who only trains his right arm
believe that a person consisted of two separate
parts: a body that gets worn out after many
years--and a soul that operates more or less
independently of what happens to the body … the girl in the mirror winked with both eyes…
Socrates pointed out the everyone could Sophie followed the trail Hermes went
understand philosophical truths if they just used and saw a cabin by the lake.
their common sense Bjerkely – title of the painting of a white house
Hermes came with a brown envelope and Sophie near a red boathouse
tried to follow Berkeley – title of the portrait of a man sitting in
Plato – 29 years old when Socrates drank the a chair by the window
hemlock; wrote a collection of Epistles and about Sophie was making faces at herself at
twenty-five philosophical Dialogues the mirror when the girl in the mirror winked
The Academy – named after the legendary with both eyes
Greek Hero Academus; philosophy, Sophie took the envelope when she
mathematics and gymnastics heard Hermes’ bark
(According to Plat) Everything tangible Questions:
in nature flows. Absolutely everything that What came first – the chicken or the
belongs to the "material world" is made of a “idea” chicken
material that time can erode, but everything is Are we born with innate “ideas”?
made after a timeless "mold" or "form" that is What is the difference between a plant,
eternal and immutable an animal, and a human?
Ideas – limited number of forms behind Why does it rain?
everything we see around us What does it take to live a good life?
World of Ideas – reality behind the material The devil finds work for idle hands
world; we can have true knowledge using our
reason; cannot be perceived by the senses
We can never have true knowledge of anything
that is in a constant state of change. We can only … a meticulous organizer who wanted to clarify
have opinions about the things that belong to our concepts…
the world of senses. We can only have true To Alberto – written on the envelope Sophie left
knowledge of things that can be understood with Miss Sleuth/Miss Burglar – name Alberto used to
our reason address Sophie
World of Senses – incomplete knowledge by Aristotle – born in Macedonia; father was a
using the 5 senses; everything flows and nothing physician/scientist; Europe’s first great biologist
is permanent Plato used his reason, Aristotle used his senses as
Man is a dual creature: a body the flows and an well
immortal soul, the realm of reason. Aristotle thought that Plato turned the whole
Myth of the Cave – the man who went out of the thing upside down. The idea was only formed
cave tells to the others inside about the world
after seeing the rea thing thus, the idea or form
had no existence of its own
Plato: All things we see in the natural world
were purely reflections of things that existed in
the world of ideas
Aristotle: Things that are in the human soul
were purely reflections of natural objects
We have no innate ideas but we have the innate
faculty of organizing all sensory impressions
into categories and classes
Reason – man’s most distinguishing
characteristic
Substance – what things are made of
Form – each thing’s characteristics
Every change in nature is a transformation of
substance from the potential to the actual
Final cause – purpose
Why does it rain?
Material cause – the moisture was there the
moment the air cooled
Efficient cause – the moisture cools
Formal cause – the nature of the water is to fall
to the earth
Plato – hide and seek
Democritus – Lego
Aristotle – guessing game
Aristotle - founded the science of Logic (i.e. all
living creatures are mortal, Hermes is a living
creature, Hermes is mortal)
Nature Scale
I. Nonliving things
II. Living Things
a. Plants
b. Creatures
i. Animals
ii. Humans
God – top of nature scale; first mover
Man can only achieve happiness by using all his
abilities and capabilities
Forms of Happiness:
-Life of pleasure and enjoyment
-Life as a free and responsible citizen
-Life as a thinker and philosopher
Golden Mean – balance
A woman was an unfinished man
Woman – soil
Man – sower
Sophie found a white knee-length stocking