Book: Sophie's World

"Perhaps the best remedy against violence would be a short course in philosophy. What about "the UN's little philosophy book" -- which all new citizens of the world could be given a copy of in their own language." p.221
--must be well-written and allowing for free thinking though. any school of thought that becomes fanatical could cause damage.

"But there was one distinct difference between people and animals, and that was human reasoning." p.223
--reference 'Stumbling on Happiness'. What does the author say about character traits unique to humans?

"Two equally old trees are growing in a large garden. One of the trees grows in a sunny spot and has plenty of good soil and water. The other tree grows in poor soil in a dark spot. Which of the trees do you think is bigger? And which of them bears more fruit?
"Obviously the tree with the best conditions for growing.
"According to Spinoza, this tree is free. It has its full freedom to develop its inherent abilities. But if it is an apple tree it will not have the ability to bear pears or plums. ....... see p.254
--look into Spinoza, interesting philosophy

"According to Hume, everybody has a feeling for other people's welfare. So we all have a capacity for compassion. But it has nothing to do with reason."
p.279

"Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others."
p. 280

"May the UN one day really be able to unite the whole of humanity, he had written on one of his cards."
p. 290

"He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth." ~Goethe
p. 300

"But unlike Descartes, he [Kant] emphasizes most particularly that it is not reason which brought him to this point, but faith." p. 332

"We cannot expect to understand what we are. [...] Even less can we expect to comprehend the universe." p. 333

"You're not especially free or independent if you just do whatever you want, in any case. [...] Independence and freedom are exactly what are required to rise above one's desires and vices." p.337

"Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the reflection dwells on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me." p.337

"The Romantics believed that only art could bring us closer to 'the inexpressible.' "
p.347

"Schelling saw a 'world spirit' in nature, but he saw the same 'world spirit' in the human mind. The natural and the spiritual are actually expressions of the same things. [...] He was saying that man bears the whole universe within himself and comes closest to the mystery of the world by stepping inside himself." p.350

"Romanticism helped strengthen the feeling of national identity." p.352

"In Norway we had Asbjornsen and Moe, who traveled around the country collecting 'folks' own tales.'" p.353
--good for Trollstilt papaer

History and philosophy
"...the attempt to set up eternal criteria for what man can know about the world. [...]
[Hegel] believed that the basis of human cognition changed from one generation to the next. There were therefore no 'eternal truths,' no timeless reason.
[...]
A river is also in a constant state of change. That doesn't mean you can't talk about it. But you cannot say at which place in the valley the river is the 'truest' river.
[...]
You can therefore never claim that any particular thought is correct for ever and ever. But the thought can be correct from where you stand. [...]
some things can be right or wrong in relation to a certain historical context."
p.361

"...humanity has advanced towards ever increasing 'self-knowledge' and 'self-development.' According to Hegel, the study of history shows that humanity is moving toward greater rationality and freedom. ... We say that history is purposeful." p.364

"Whatever survives is right." "Or vice versa: that which is right survives."
p.366

"There's no need to have an opinion on something that everyone agrees on." p.368
--so by default there will always be an opposite opinion.

"There are two kinds of truths. There are the superficial truths, the opposite of which are obviously wrong. But there are also the profound truths, wohse opposites are equally right." p.369
--ex. life is short and life is long

"Reason manifests itself above all in language. And a language is something we are born into. The Norwegian language manages quite well without Mr. Hansen, but Mr. Hansen cannot manage without Norwegian. It is thus not the individual who forms the language, it is the language which forms the individual." p.370
--society forms language, so here is the individualistic vs. socialistic perspective. West vs. East again?

"Just as the state is unthinkable without citizens, citizens are unthinkable without the state." p. 370

"...philosophy is the mirror of the world spirit..." p. 371

p. 379

On why reason is not necessarily the most important.
"Neither can you know whether a person loves you. It's something you just have to believe or hope. But these things are more important to you than the fact that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees." p.381

"...until now, 'philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." p.392
--implies human life is a search for something (what are you changing it to? surely not for the sake of changing? so goal must exist.)

"Material change creates new spiritual relations." p. 393

"How we work affects our consciousness, but our consciousness also affects the way we work." p.397

"But if she hates her work, Sophie, she must hate herself, in a sense." p.397

"...here again we see that everything man touches becomes a mixture of good and evil. [...] There will probably never be a 'promised land.' Mankind wil lalways create new problems to fight about." p.401
--but hopefully better problems?

"He [Darwin] believed that mankind's ability to procreate is so great that there are always more children born than can survive." p. 414

"But in a sense modern medicine has put natural selection out of commission." p. 421

Freud
"Freud demonstrated that there is an artist in everyone." p/442

p.443

"In order to think new thoughts, we must be bold enough to let ourselves go." p.445

"Man is the only living creature that is conscious of its own existence." p. 456

"It is therefore useless to search for the meaning of life in general. We are condemned to improvise. We are like actors dragged onto the stage without having learned our lines, with no script and no prompter to whisper stage directions to us. We must decide for ourselves how to live." p.457

"Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he has not created himself--and is nevertheless free. Because having once been hurled into the world, he is responsible for everything he does." p.457

p.458-9

"But everything new is not necessarily good, and not all the old should be thrown out." p.464

"That's the way it is in life too. When Sophie was a little girl, she went tripping around in tiny little rings. But as the years went by, the rings got bigger and bigger." p.478
--how comfortable are you with how big your ring is? when it gets uncomfortable, do we stop growing?

p.494
story of man and angel, of the angel being able to go through things b/c it has more substance, not less. such as man going through mist b/c he has more substance, not less. Thus spirit has more substance than ice, with the angel being spirit.