Dads stories

Birthdays and Sophie's World

Saturday 8th January, 2000
Well, I took on Sophie and have to say I am not badly impressed!
In my younger years, when I took the number 16 (tram line) for its drive, I had a lot of time and opportunities to think about philosophical questions. Later on I would often say that during this time I built my philosophical foundations. I can no longer remember any one idea in detail. I was too involved in the many things that I took on in later years. But one incident has stayed with me:

My conductor came into the drivers cabin to wish me a happy birthday. Always ready for an argument, I said, this custom to celebrate this birthday from year to year is a great nonsense, without the slightest basis. What really happens here is that the earth arrives at a specific point in space which is never the same, and can’t be the same, as in the previous year because in the meantime the entire solar system has moved on quite a distance. So what do we celebrate?
This just came to me without any thought. Of course, it had not substance. What we celebrate is tearing off a particular leaf of a calendar, just like this turn of the century. I don’t really know if we are celebrating the fact that Caesar 2000 revolutions of the earth orbiting the sun ago, brought out a calendar which ended up costing humanity dearly. Of course, Caesar can’t be blamed for that.
What I wanted to say about the book Sophie’s World was, that until now I have never found a philosophical book that could be read. Because of all the necessary arguments about what used to be wrong and is now correct because of one or another philosophies, these books are full of references to other philosophies or philosophical ideas, which one then has to look up to understand what this new Philosopher has to say. One reads one or two pages max before giving up.
This book on the other hand contains by far the most references to philosophers and philosophical ideas that I have ever seen. But instead of just referring to them, these ideas are discussed in an easy to understand way. Well, marvellous. On top of this one now has a very comprehensive reference book. Should one wish to know more about one or the other idea, the respective work can be borrowed at the library.
I am convinced that the two of us will have quite a bit of fun with this.

posted by Inge @ 9:44 pm