Sophie’s World Reflection

Script Graphic Organizer

Format Podcast

Chapter The Natural Philosophers

School of Natural Philosophers

Philosophy

Group Member Role

Musa Interviewer/Sole host of podcast

Levi Person who’s being interviewed/ guest of podcast

Checklist:
Consistent Format
Summary of Narrative
Summary of Book structure
Discipline of Philosophy Chosen (a chapter to focus on)
At least one quote
Clear connections between translation in Philosophy and Paradigm shifts
Clear connection between the Book structure and Paradigm shifts

Quotes

Pages Quote Reason for quote

31 Provokes individual thought

and inquiries

“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!” (pg 31)
 It shows a cause to a
paradigm shift

“We could say that the natural philosophers

took the first step in the direction of
scientific reasoning, thereby becoming the
precursors of what was to become
science.” (pg 33)

Script Outline:

Musa (Host): Hello, and welcome back to Philosophy Review with your host, Musa. Today we
welcome Levi, who recently released an article about Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder.

Levi (Guest): Thank you for having me.

Musa (Host): Let’s start with just a general summary of the book.

Levi (Guest): Of course, Sophie’s World is a novel that begins with Sophie, a 14-year-old girl
living in Norway, receiving two messages in her mailbox and a postcard addressed to Hilde
Moller Knag. Throughout the book, Sophie receives strange and mysterious letters from Alberto
Knox. Knox educates Sophie about the history of philosophy. He begins with the ancient Greeks
and progresses to more modern-day philosophers. He describes the paradigm shifts that
occurred thanks to them. Sophie begins to question virtually everything about the world and
herself. Sophie and Alberto discover that their world is being controlled by Albert Knag, Hilde’s
father, through his literary work, which he will gift to Hilde on her 15th birthday. She begins to
read the book but turns against her father after he messes with Sophie’s life by sending
characters such as Little Red Riding Hood and Winnie the Pooh to talk with her. By teaching
Sophie philosophy, Alberto helps Sophie fight against the control of Knag. Alberto’s plan to
escape Albert’s control was successful, and they eventually make it out of the fictional world into
the real world. They did so in the middle of chaos surrounding them at a party, which Albert is
too occupied writing about to notice them escaping. The book ends with Hilde reconnecting with
her father.

Musa (Host): Eventful and exciting! Could you speak shortly about the narrative and the
structure that Gaarder went within Sophie’s World and how does it connect to the scientific
paradigm shifts?

Levi (Guest): Yes,

Gaarder incorporates the philosophy lessons into the story.
The classes are often monologues from Alberto. The book is written in a
way that emphasizes the overall growth of Western philosophy instead of
making the readers experts on a specific philosopher. Gaarder writes
Sophie’s World so that as Alberto is educating Sophie, we are being
educated too. This causes Sophie to make her own opinions, observations,
interpretations, and inferences about each philosophy, which then provokes
the readers to think themselves and to create their own thoughts, separate
from the information given in the book.

Musa (Host): Could you expand on that?

Levi (Guest): Of
course. In the chapter “The Natural Philosophers,” Alberto
poses questions to Sophie. He asks, “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!” (pg 31) Of course, Sophie begins to think and
create an opinion, but this type of question and dialogue also encourages
the readers to think critically about the ideas presented in the book, just as
many of these philosophers did with their own students. Gaarder
intentionally writes Sophies World in a way that leads to readers coming to
their own conclusions and making inferences, not just embracing the
opinions of a specific philosophy and taking it as truth. This is similar to
how students in a physics class can make intentional assumptions about a
particular situation to solve a mathematical problem. Gaarder connects
these questions to the rest of the chapter, which dives into the natural
philosophers. This connection and the questions allow the reader to
understand the paradigm shifts that occur between philosophers because
the reader already has formed an opinion and understanding of the
previous philosophers.

Musa (Host): Fascinating. How does that chapter reinforce the reader’s understanding of
paradigm shifts? How do scientific paradigm sifts connect to the philosophy highlighted in the
chapter?

Levi (Guest): Great question. The chapter talks about the earliest Greek
philosophers, who are also known as the Natural philosophers. In contrast to the
first philosophers, who all thought that the root of all change came from a basic
thing (they tended to correlate that with religion or the divine), the natural
philosophers wanted to understand what was happening around them without
turning to the ancient myths. They put an emphasis on observation,
experimentation, and inquiry, which can be seen in the scientific method today.
Gaarder explains that this was much different than explaining nature’s acts by
telling stories about the gods and their powers. Gaarder writes that “We could
say that the natural philosophers took the first step in the direction of scientific
reasoning, thereby becoming the precursors of what was to become science.”
(pg 33) The natural philosophers caused a paradigm shift and future paradigm
shifts because they moved away from relying on myths or stories to explain
things in real life to observing and using the scientific method, which future
philosophers used to further knowledge.

Musa (Host): Well, that’s all that we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining me
today and sharing your insights on Sophie’s World!

Levi (Guest): Thank you for having me.

Musa (Host): And that’s a wrap on this week’s episode of “Philosophy Review” with your host
Musa. Thanks for listening!