Sophie's World

Sophies' World published in 1991. Originally written in Norwegian, it was translated in 51 languages.

Do you feel the subject of Philosophy as the driest one on Earth?
Do you try to read it but leave soon due to boredom?
But you can't just ignore it because:

• Philosophy is the mother of all sciences.
• It is the root of all the thought provoking material in the world.
• If you want to write well, you have to study it.

           Jostein Gaarder from University of Oslo knew this problem of his students. Being a Norwegian intellectual, he made an exceptional effort to sum up the history of philosophy in the simplest manner.

             Sophie's World is a novel about a fourteen year old girl, who was enticed by an unknown man to study philosophy. In the beginning, he just asked two simple questions from Sophie that who is she and from where the world began. Curious to know more, she started reading the Philosophical material sent from her teacher. He further said,


                                      "THE ONLY  THING WE REQUIRE TO BE GOOD
                                      PHILOSOPHERS IS THE FACULTY OF WONDER. "

            And this wonder leads Sophie to discover the new aspects of life. She herself starts to think as the the philosophers do. The Novel moves in a systematic manner and the author is well aware of the boredom that may occur to the reader due to monotonus concepts of Philosophy. So, he runs a side story too in the Novel about some soldier and his daughter.

            The reader finds himself in a journey along with Sophie and he cannot restrain himself to think analytically. Probably it is the best book I have ever read in my life.

 Some quotes from the novel are:

• Fate :
  … the “fortune-teller” is trying to foresee something that is really quite
  unforeseeable ...

• We can either fool ourselves and the rest of the world by
  pretending that we know all there is to know, or we can shut our eyes to the
  central issues once and for all and abandon  all progress.

• Philosophers will try to ignore highly topical affairs and instead try  to draw people’s attention to what is eternally “true,” eternally “beautiful,” and eternally “good. 

  
 Here are some reviews from some other sources:

• “A page-turner.” —Entertainment Weekly
• “Compelling.” —Los Angeles Times 
• “Involving and often humorous.” —USA Today
  
  

  Download:

  
  You can download the book directly from the link provided below:
  http://bookzz.org/book/923207/90cd4e

Peace Peace Everywhere

Lake water just mesmerized me

             Sitting alone at the bank of lake with wild plants framing me, I feel myself free from all worries. After a long time, I am passing some time with me. My own company is always interesting. Ideas strike like wild tides. Many lost things recollect again. I hear what is special for me. Some sounds that only belong to me. I wish the serenity of the surrounding may stay forever.

Who Am I

     
          Sitting within the cave, we can just see the shadows. The truth is in veil. Everyone has an instinct to search it and our whole lives pass in circles to find the reality. I am one of my fellow beings who love to remain a lifetime student of their inner space. Let's try to explore what the world of thoughts is, from where the Pneuma belongs to, and what are the truths of nature hidden from us. Come to the journey of purity with me...

              A traveller by nature and an engineering student by profession, I love to read what I want, and write about what I think.

A Nation's Dream

       

          On this independence day, I have pondered a lot about Pakistan. The whole nation is in its journey to achieve the undetermined goals. It aspires for the vague dreams with huge perplexity to turn into reality. It is simply impossible.
          What we have to do is to redefine our priorities. We have to recognize our problems and think about their solutions. We have to keep one dream which best suits with our condition. Surely, this will give us a right line of action. Otherwise, we cannot survive as a nation. Happy independence day Pakistan...!

Dos And Don'ts

             

             Very often, we desire to get more than our status, we want to be the leader of fellow human beings and crave to be well-known in our society. It's not a bad thing, for man is the crown of the creatures and he is supposed to think broad and fly high in the skies. To ponder on a matter wisely before working on it is the only thing which differentiates  Homo-Sapiens from the rest. But, as far as this desire is concerned, we fail to contemplate our suitability. Our line of action is quite violent and we always behave as 'Mr. Right' for the leadership. For instance, we all are familiar of the people around us including us who talk high about their ideas how the government should do in this situation and what would I do if I were in place of this 'short-sighted' leader.

           Those who have high ranks, have to comply with great expectations.A man in the street is never supposed to be the Saviour of the nation. He is considered to toil hard for the bread and butter of his family, and die after a peaceful life.In contrary to it, if a person comes out of his home to lead his people,his obligations are increased manifold from the very first day. It becomes necessary for him to keep his own aspirations apart and die his own hand for the sake of others. It's just a glimpse of the life of a person having greater status than others. 

          Having a look at history, we find majority of people who got the chance to lead the nations, but failed to coup with the shortcomings and demands of the stature. It is crystal clear that such nations were ruined either due to the irrational decisions of their leaders or rein-less prostration of their desires.

         Making a long story short, one should realize that not every person can be the king of his own state or a commissioner of his city, since there are millions of such people who have the same target for just one or few seats. So, what each and every man can do and definitely achieve is the love of his fellows by serving them. It not only enables one to seek satisfaction and pleasure of soul, but also defines weather a man can bear the responsibility of a nation or not.

The Socrates’ Day

The door was knocked. It kept on bumping. The ice melted thousands of times. Volcanoes erupted along with. The trees grew, some rose and some destroyed by storms. Calendars turned to chronicles. Monarchs were founded and plundered. Characters always dimmed but the truths never. The ideas were not the thing which can be hid or forced to do so. So the emblems of reality lingered as before. The man heard the strokes at door. He was not alone to perceive. The truths are self-evident. So it was not the man, it was mankind who witnessed.  But there was no one to quote why it happened time and again. For this question was not mere as it seemed. It certainly had to do something with their minds as well; and no one was ready to accept the remedy.

…………..

The shadow was sentenced to death. Execution would occur tomorrow or the day after. Not a joke. Most probably, the ship⁽¹⁾   would arrive the next day . The light in the shade would be heavy enough to be buried along with. There would be thunders and gales on the land of gods. An earthquake might hit them by its discrepancy. So the think tanks suggested filling the whole light in a crock and throw somewhere away. Seems a pun? Remember my dear, when wit is auctioned in markets, such pranks take birth. These are inevitable. Not a long after this, neither such wisdom nor these auctioneers survive. Just the tall tales exist for cautioning.

…………..

Glom after gloom. Like an onion, every sheath had the same thing. Darkness. A journey to nowhere. No signs of end post. Unaware of even what was the starting line. Darkness is actually the absence of light. But the travellers of night had just witnessed the dusk. What is light was an unseen problem. So they continued roving in utter blackout. Kept on moving about circles for centuries.

…………..

The knocks at the door will never stop. The rays of light will make their way through. The door will be flapped countless times until it gets shattered. To avoid disturbance, the sleepwalkers will try to fix its latches. They cannot, but they will act eccentrically. Their bizarre activities of burial of light will not be ended to keep the meanders on lusterless roads. But the door will be crackled and unleash the reality. The immortal ideas will rule one day. That will be the Socrates’ day.

1-In Socrates’ time, the person sentenced to death was given the bowl of poison on the arrival of a ship. There was some myth attached to it.