From Myths to Reason: The Story of Thinking – Written by: Muneeb ur Rehman
Have you ever pondered about the different disciplines we study in our respective educational institutes? Where did all these disciplines came from? Did humans know everything we know today from the very beginning?
If we think about these questions, we might conclude with our little experience and reason that these disciplines are evolving and they must have evolved from something very basic, something that must have been very raw and basic. All the ideas and minds we study today must have felt absurd to their contemporary masses. All these disciplines we study today, in one way or another, evolved from philosophy. Civics, Sociology, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology all these disciplines evolved with advancement in philosophy.
I have just completed reading a novel on those primitive unique ideas namely “Sophie’s World” a novel about the history of philosophy. I would like to present a short summary of the book. Sophie’s World is a novel written by Jostein Gaarder. Since the book is a blend of Non-Fiction – History of philosophy – and fiction – story of a girl learning philosophy – we find both fictional and non-fictional characters.
Therefore we can divide the book into two parts as well.
(Fictional Story)
In this novel we initially see two main characters Sophie and Alberto Knox. Alberto teaches philosophy to Sophie anonymously via letters first and then in person. As we go further, we realize that Sophie and Alberto were characters of another book, within the novel, written by Major Albert Knag for his daughter as a birthday gift. The writer, Jostein Gaarder, uses perfectly timed and well described fictional characters to explain philosophy simply and yet beautifully.
(Non Fictional Part)
(History of western Philosophy)
The non fictional part of the book is pure philosophy. This part begins with the very first opposition to mythological explanations of natural processes. The philosophers of that time are called Natural philosophers. They tried to find natural explanations for natural processes instead of supernatural ones. These philosophers lived before 300 BC.
Then came the three great minds of philosophy Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They concerned themselves with man, morality and State unlike the natural philosophers who were preoccupied with natural world. These three great Athenians laid down the foundation for the coming 2000 years of philosophy.
After these three genius minds the world saw a sea of changes. Alexander the Great conquered half of the world, Christianity arrived, cultures and civilizations got merged. During all these changes the philosophical evolution was almost halted for years. A few schools of thoughts came into being like stoics and cynics. But mostly all the thoughts related to either of the three greats.
For a thousand years, Europe suffered from dark ages where Church dominated and controlled the whole system. Even kings had no power in front of church.
Philosophy was revived after the Renaissance in the 14th century. From that moment on many philosophers came with genius ideas. Some of those philosophers include Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Marx and Freud etc. It is very difficult to comprehend their philosophy in short sentences and even if it is possible, I will consider it as a disrespect to their work.
Overall the novel is very engaging and makes the reader cling to the book for hours. The use of fiction and fictional characters at the right time to explain philosophy more easily is very impressive and certainly helps in understanding complex ideas easily.
However exaggeration of the fictional part in a few places makes it a little boring. In the non fictional part the ideas are very clear and concise but as we read pass the Renaissance period, too much simplification and merging of multiple ideas makes it a bit difficult to understand.
Even with the mentioned shortcomings the book is worth reading and worth the time. There is chronological order, the writing style is engaging, and most importantly the brilliant minds are there. So I will recommend it to both new readers of philosophy and masters of philosophy because this book will not only introduce its reader to philosophy it will also help the veteran revise philosophy.
