This is my first blog post, so bear with me here. I'm still figuring out how to use this new website.
I suppose the first thing I'd like to say about Sophie's World is that the writing seems very basic. The writing style of the author is very simplistic and a seven-year-old could keep up with the text and story line in between Sophie's lessons. Plus, the whole thing about Hilde and the weird gifts, and Sophie's odd relationship with "Alberto" is just obscure.
However, on a less superficial level, the information within the book is quite interesting, though it can also be confusing. I think the most difficult thing to understand, just in terms of reading and concept comprehension would be the whole debate about "forms". With the natural philosophers and Plato's Theory of Forms, it's sometimes confusing just what on earth they mean with all of their ideas. For example, I'm a bit confused as to what Heraclitus means when he says that stuff naturally "flows". What does that mean for something to flow? The only real part I understand about that is his iconic quote about never stepping into the same river twice. Or, just to be crystal clear, what exactly is a "form"? Also, with his Theory of Forms, Plato believes that every idea has already been thought of. What does he mean by that? If it's already been thought of, who thought of it first? Is he proposing that some sort of higher power or alternate universe contains these "ideal forms" or thought of these ideas first? Take the chapter regarding Aristotle: They talk more about Plato's Theory of Forms, and Plato claims that first there is an "idea" and then there is a form. How could that be though? The way Aristotle explains it makes much more sense. The idea that we observe something and as our brain begins to establish a relationship or title for that thing, it turns into an "form"; They use the example of horses in the book to explain this. That makes sense to me because it sounds like the rudimentary proposal of schemas (The unique, mental framework that we use to perceive the world)- as we acquire new information and have different experiences, we either assimilate the information into a pre-existing schema, accommodate the schema to make more sense with the new information and prevent cognitive dissonance, or we form a new schema entirely. Aristotle really did explore all fields of science, and that included psychology!
#Psychiseverywhere
