Sophy's World (Sofies Verden) is a Norwegian novel by Jostein Gaarder translated into English by Paulet Miller. It is a wonderful book of philosophy for young adults compressing 2000 years' philosophy in about 500 pages. Through my presentation, I aim to condense the key philosophical concepts of this book in about 45 slides so that all of us can have a quick look at the philosophical reflections which have made us what we are today.

1. A Presentation on ‘Sophie’s World’
by
Nayana RenuKumar
Sr. Knowledge Manager, Centre for Good Governance

2. Chapter Index
Chapter I--Garden of Chapter XIII--The Postcards Chapter XXV--Kant
Eden Chapter XIV--Two Cultures Chapter XXVI--Romanticism
Chapter II--The Top Hat Chapters XV--Middle Ages Chapter XXVII--Hegel
Chapter III--The Myths Chapter XVI-- Renaissance Chapter XXVIII--Kierkegaard
Chapter IV--Natural Chapter XVII--The Baroque Chapter XXIX--Marx
Philosophers Chapter XVIII--Descartes Chapter XXX--SUMMARY/
Chapter V--Democritus Chapter XIX--Spinoza REVIEW & DARWIN
Chapter VI--Fate Chapter XX--Locke Chapter XXXI--Freud
Chapter VII--Socrates Chapter XXI--Hume Chapter XXXII--Our Own Time
Chapter VIII--Athens Chapter XXII--Berkeley Chapter XXXIII--Garden Party
Chapter IX--Plato Chapter XXIII--Bjerkely Chapter XXXIV--Counterpoint
Chapter X--Major's Cabin Chapter XXIV--The Chapter XXXV--The Big Bang
Chapter XI-Aristotle Enlightenment
Chapter XII--Hellenism

3. The Garden of Eaden
The Top Hat
The Myths

4. The Garden of Eden
Who are you?
Where does the world
come from?

5. The Top Hat
Dear Sophie,
The best way of approaching
philosophy is to ask a few A Greek philosopher who
philosophical questions: lived more than two
thousand years ago
How was the world created?
believed that philosophy
Is there any will or meaning behind had its origin in man’s
what happens? sense of wonder
Is there a life after death?
How can we answer these
questions?
And most important, how ought we
to live?

6. The Myths
... a precarious balance between the forces of good and evil…
Philosophy -- the completely new way of thinking that evolved in
Greece about 600 years before Christ
Till then religions offered answers to people's questions
Religious explanations were handed down from generation to
generation as myths. Myth is a story about the gods which
sets out to explain why life is as it is
Around 700 B.C., Homer and Hesiod writes down much of the
Greek mythology. Once Myths existed in written form, it was
possible to discuss and criticize them. Earliest Greek
philosophers criticized Homer’s mythology because the gods
resembled mortals too much
For the first time, it was said that the myths were nothing but
human notions

7. Natural Philosophers
THREE ELIATICS DEMOCRITUS
PHILOSOPHERS
FROM MILETUS Parmenides: Everything Everything was made
that exists had always of was built up of
Thales: Source of all existed. Nothing could tiny invisible blocks,
things is water change each of which was
Anaximander: Our eternal and
Heraclitus : Constant
world is only one of a immutable.
change, or flow, was the
myriad of worlds that most basic characteristic of Democritus called
evolve and dissolve in nature. Everything flows. these smallest units
the boundless atoms
Therefore we cannot step
Anaximenes : Source of twice into the same river.
Eerything could change
Seekers of natural than
all things must be “air” or
supernatural
“vapor Empedocles: World had explanations for natural
All believed in the existence to consist of more than one
processes
of a single basic substance single substance. Nature
Decisive break with the
as the source of all things could transform without
anything actually changing.
mythological world
picture

8. Socrates
Aristotle
The Triumvirate
3 great classical philosophers to
influence European civilization
Plato

9. Socrates (470-399BC)
Most enigmatic figure in the entire history of philosophy
Life of Socrates mainly known through the writings of Plato has
inspired the Western world for nearly 2,500 years
Not a sophist, but a philosopher : Sophists and Socrates turned
their attention from questions of natural philosophy to
problems related to man and society.
He was neither certain nor indifferent: All he knew was that he
knew nothing—and it troubled him. "One thing only I know, and that is
that I know nothing" So he became a philosopher—someone who does not give up but
tirelessly pursues his quest for truth. He dared tell people how little we humans know.
The Art of Discourse : Never a believer of instruction. Like a midwife,
Socrates saw his task as helping people to “give birth” to correct
insight
By playing ignorant, Socrates forced people to use their common
sense

10. Socrates
All true insight comes from within: Real understanding must come from within;
only that can lead to true insight. Right insight leads to right action. He who
knows what good is will do good.
We all had the same chances because we all had the same common sense:
There exists eternal and absolute rules for what is right or wrong.
By using our common sense we can all arrive at these norms
Ability to distinguish between right and wrong lies in people’s reason, not in society
Unmistakable faith in human reason
Socrates managed to free himself from the prevailing views of his time by his own
intelligence. But he had to pay a heavy price for it
Socrates was killed because he disturbed the Athenian society's conventional
ideas and tried to light the way to true insight.
In Socrates, we therefore see how dangerous it could be to appeal to people’s
Reason.
Socrates must have had tremendous courage and sense of pedagogic responsibility
to go ahead regardless of the perils

11. Plato (428 -347 BC)
Search for the eternal and immutable : Plato was concerned with the
relationship between what is eternal and immutable, on the one hand, and what
“flows,” on the other – middle ground between sophists and socrates
Theory of Ideas: Reality is divided into two regions:
● World of senses: About which we can only have approximate or
incomplete knowledge by using our five senses. Here, “everything flows” and
nothing is permanent.
● World of ideas: About which we can have true knowledge by using our
reason. This world of ideas cannot be perceived by the senses, but the ideas
(or forms) are eternal and immutable. All natural forms are mere shadows
or reflections of eternal forms or ideas – theory of ideas
Man is thus a dual creature: our body consists of earth and dust like
everything else in the sensory world (matter), but we also had an
immortal soul (spirit)

12. Plato
Pluto's political philosophy
Body Soul Virtue State
Head Reason Wisdom Rulers
Chest Will Courage Auxiliaries
Abdomen Appetite Temperance Laborers
Characterized by rationalism. Favored philosophers' rule of state. In
effect a totalitarian state with no family and political ties, not unlike
caste system. Later opined that a constitutional state is the next
best option
On women: Women could govern just as effectively as men for
the simple reason that the rulers govern by virtue of their reason.
Women have exactly the same powers of reasoning as men,
provided they get the same training and are exempt from child rearing
and housekeeping

13. Aristotle...not only the last of the great Greek philosophers, but also
Europe’s first great biologist (384-322 BC)
A meticulous organizer who set out to clarify our concepts.
Founded the science of Logic.
Criticized Plato's theory of ideas:
Highest degree of reality is that which Highest degree of reality is that which
we think with our reason we perceive with our senses
Things we see in natural world are purely Things that are in the human soul were
reflections of things that existed in the purely reflections of natural objects. So
higher reality of the world of ideas - and nature is the real world
thereby in the human soul
The distinction between “form” and “substance” plays an important part in
Aristotle’s explanation of the way we discern things in the world

14. Nature's scale: There is a gradual transition from simple growths to more
complicated plants, from simple animals to more complicated animals. With man at
the top of this “scale” who lives the whole life of nature.
Ethics: Three forms of happiness;
Life of pleasure and enjoyment;
Life as a free and responsible citizen;
Life as thinker and philosopher.
All three criteria must be present at the same time for man to find happiness and
fulfillment. He rejected all forms of imbalance and advocated the golden mean
Women: Woman is incomplete, an unfinished man
Politics: Three good forms of constitution
Form Meaning Must not degenerate into
Monarchy Only one head of Tyranny
State One ruler captures power
Aristocracy Larger group of Oligarchy
rulers Government run by a select few
Polity Democracy Mob rule

15. Hellenism... a spark from the fire…
Athens loses its dominant role by 325 BC
Conquests of Alexander the Great political upheavals new
epoch in history of mankind
Hellenism refers to both the period of time and the Greek-
dominated culture that prevailed in the Hellenistic kingdoms of
Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt
Borders between countries and cultures became erased. In
place of “national religion, different cultures merged into a
fusion of creeds
New religious formations – fusion of many gods, many beliefs -
doubt and uncertainty about philosophy of life - religious
doubts, cultural dissolution, and pessimism - "The world had
grown old"

16. Hellenism
Philosophic insight – not only for its own sake but also to
free mankind from pessimism and the fear of death
Eliminates boundaries between religion and philosophy
Hellenistic philosophy
Not startlingly original
Continued to work with problems raised by Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle
Common current: Desire to discover how mankind should
best live and die – ethics - central philosophical project
Emphasis on finding out what true happiness was and how
it could be achieved.
Four major philosophical trends

17. The Cynics & Stoics
Antisthenes – Athens - Zeno -around 300 BC
around 400 B.C
All natural processes follow
True happiness is not found the unbreakable laws of
in external advantages or
nature. Man must therefore
on being dependent on
random and fleeting things learn to accept his destiny.
Therefore happiness is Nothing happens
within everyone’s reach accidentally;
Having once been attained, Everything happens through
it can never be lost necessity;
So it is of little use to
complain when fate comes
knocking at the door

18. Epicureans & Neoplatonics
Epicurus around 300 BC Plato - distinction between
world of ideas and sensory
The highest good is pleasure, the world
greatest evil is pain
Plotinus (270-205 BC) - world as
Pleasurable results of an action to a span between two poles with
be weighed against possible side divine light (God) at one end and
effects absolute darkness at other end.
All that exists is God. Soul is
Death does not concern us; as long illuminated by the light from the
as we exist, death is not here. And God, while matter is the
when it does come, we no longer exist darkness that has no real
The gods are not to be feared. Death existence.
is nothing to worry about. Divine mystery in everything
that exists. No barrier between
Good is easy to attain. The fearful is
god and man
easy to endure.

19. Two Cultures, two philosophies
Indo-European: All nations and cultures Semitic : Cultures using Semitic
using Indo-European languages (Most of languages. Root of all three
Europe, India, Iran) Clear similarities in Western religions - Judaism,
mode of thoughts Christianity, Islam
Belief in many gods Belief in one god
Sought insight into world’s history - Sight Relied on God’s words - Hearing
Distance between god and his creation –
Oneness with God
No pictures & sculptures -
Purpose of life is to be released from the Purpose of life is to be redeemed from sin
cycle of rebirth and blame
Religious life characterized by self- Religious life characterized by prayer,
communion and meditation sermons, and study of scriptures
Cyclic view of history: History goes in Linear view of history: In the beginning,
circles like seasons - no beginning and no God created the world – history begun.
end - Civilizations rise and fall in an eternal On Judgment day history will end, when
interplay between birth and death God judges the living and the dead

20. The Middle Ages...A 1000 year journey
Rise of Christianity:
145 AD 300 AD 313 AD 380 AD
Paul’s missionary journeys Christian Church banned Accepted religion Official religion
Church puts the lid on Greek philosophy
529 AD- Closed Plato’s Academy
Monasteries wrested monopoly of education, reflection, and meditation
By 600 AD, Islam wins over Middle East, Spain, and North African part
of Roman empire; adopts Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Bagdad
Arabs inherited much of old Greek science; gains prominence in sciences
Dark Ages, one interminable thousand-year-long night settled
over Europe between antiquity and the Renaissance.
Also seen as a period of germination and growth when schools and
universities developed. Unifying force of Christian culture

21. Medieval philosophers
Took it almost for granted that Christianity was true. Only
questions:
Whether to simply believe Christian revelations or approach
them with help of reason
No dramatic break with Greek philosophy; slow transition
enabled by Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine
St. Augustine:
Located Platonic ideas in God and thus preserved the Platonic view
of eternal ideas
Biblical idea : God created the world out of the void.
Greeks : World had always existed.
St. Augustine : Before God created the world, the ‘ideas’ were in the
Divine mind
Idea of City of God: Human history is a struggle between
‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Kingdom of World for mastery over human
beings

22. St. Thomas Aquinas
Christianized Aristotle just as St. Augustine Christianized Plato
Adopted Aristotle’s philosophy in all areas where it did not collide with
Church’s theology. (Logic, theory of knowledge, and natural philosophy)
No need for any conflict between philosophers like Aristotle and Christian
doctrine
God’s existence can be proved on the basis of Aristotle’s philosophy
Truths could be reached both through Christian faith and innate reason.
Two paths to faith: Aristotle’s philosophy presumed the existence of a formal cause (God)
which sets all natural processes going. Christianity knows this formal cause is god. God has
thus revealed himself to mankind both through the Bible and through reason.
Two paths to moral life: Bible teaches us how God wants us to live. But God has also given
us a conscience to distinguish between right and wrong.
Aristotle goes only part of the way because he didn’t know of the Christian
revelation. But going only part of the way is not the same as going
the wrong way

24. Renaissance (Rebirth):
Rich cultural development - began in late 14th century – N. Italy - spread rapidly
northward in 200 years
Rebirth of art and culture of antiquity
After Dark Ages where life was seen through divine light, everything once again
revolved around man - Renaissance humanism
Basis
Changes on the cultural and economic front –
From subsistence economy to a monetary economy.
Developed cities – rise of middle class with better basic conditions of life.
Rewarded people’s diligence, imagination, and ingenuity
New demands on individual
Three discoveries: - compass (easy navigation – great voyages), firearms,
(military superiority) and printing press (dissemination of ideas – breaks free of
Church monopoly) - essential preconditions
Renaissance middle class - break away from feudal lords and church.
Religion acquires a freer relationship to reasoning and science
New scientific methods and a new religious fervor.
Rediscovery of Greek culture through closer contact with the Arabs in
Spain and Byzantine culture in East

25. New view of
mankind Greater
individualism Nothing to be
ashamed of Life in here and
• Resurgence of • Not mere beings, but now
humanism unique individuals
• Renewed interest in
• New belief in • Ideal of Renaissance human anatomy • Man did not exist
man and his man, a man of purely for God’s sake
worth • After thousand
universal genius
years of prudery, it • He felt at home in the
• Man was now embracing all aspects
once again became world
considered of life, art, and
usual for works of
infinitely great science • Life is not solely a
and valuable art to depict the
preparation for afterlife
Emphasis on nude
- whole new approach
•
individual and his
• Man was bold to physical world
personal relationship
enough to be
to God • Freedom to develop –
himself again
limitless possibilities -
aim was now to
exceed all boundaries
Unrivalled development in all spheres of life. Art and
architecture, literature, music, philosophy, and science
flourished as never before
Pantheism: God was also present in his creation

26. Science...empiricism
New method of scientific investigation - observation, experiment,
experience
Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be
measured : Galileo
Emphasize on practical value of knowledge
Starting to intervene in nature and beginning to control it
Nicolas Copernicus: Earth moved around the Sun and not vice versa
(1543) - Heliocentric world picture
Kepler - Planets move in elliptical orbits. Earth is a planet like any
other (1600s) . Same physical laws apply everywhere in the universe
Law of Inertia: A body remains in the state which it is in, at rest or in
motion, as long as no external force compels it to change its state.
Isaac Newton: Final description of the solar system and the planetary
orbits – Law of Universal Gravitation

27. Baroque...such stuff as dreams are made of (17th century)
Irregularity and richness was typical of Baroque art than the plainer and more
harmonious Renaissance art.
Baroque favorite sayings : ‘Carpe diem’—‘seize the day', ‘memento mori' -
‘Remember that you must die.’
Age of conflict, class differences, and irreconcilable contrasts - between
Renaissance’s unremitting optimism and life of religious seclusion and self-
denial; between rich and the poor; between magnificence and mendicancy;
between Protestants and Catholics; wars between countries
Birth of modern theater
Philosophy of Baroque: Characterized by powerful struggles between diametrically
opposed modes of thought
Contours between Idealism and Materialism never so clearly present at the same time as in the
Baroque.
Great philosophers of this period – Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibiniz

28. Descartes
Father of modern philosophy: Assembled contemporary thought
into one coherent philosophical system
Socrates-Plato-St. Augustine-Descartes: Rationalists - reason as
the only path to knowledge These
questions -
Main concerns: substance of
philosophical
What we can know, in other words, certain knowledge argument for
next 150 years
What was the relationship between body and mind.
Discourse on Philosophical Method: Philosophy should go from
the simple to the complex to construct a new insights. Ensure by
constant enumeration and control that nothing was left out. Then, a
philosophical conclusion would be within reach
Favorite line: Cogito, ergo sum: I think therefore I am
Dualist: Man is a dual creature-with a mind and body (matter –
extension of mind)

29. Baruch Spinoza
First to apply historic-critical interpretation of Bible: Critical
reading of Bible bearing in mind the period it was written in
Spinoza interpreted this as meaning both love of God and love of
humanity
Monist: Does not have dualistic view of reality as Descartes.
Everything that exists can be reduced to one single reality
Substance which may be God or nature.
God speaking through the laws of nature is the inner cause of everything that happens
Everything in the material world happens through necessity. Spinoza
had a determinist view of the material, or natural, world

30. John Locke David Hume
From Rationalists to Empiricists
George Berkeley

31. John Locke (1632-1704)
Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Attempt to clarify two questions:
Where we get our ideas from: Mind at birth is an empty slate. Only source of
genuine knowledge is sensory experience. Knowledge that cannot be traced back to a
sensation is therefore false knowledge and must consequently be rejected. There’s
nothing in the intellect that wasn’t previously in the senses
Can we rely on our sense: Senses objectively reproduce primary qualities
(extension, weight, motion and number) world as it is. Senses only reproduce the
effect of the outer reality of secondary qualities (color, smell, taste, sound) on our
senses – subjective – world as it appears to us . Everyone agrees on primary
qualities, secondary qualities vary from person to person - relativism
"There is nothing in the mind except what was first in the senses" (Aristotle)
Inconsistent in empiricism: It is inherent in human reason to be able to know that
God exists
Forerunner of many liberal ideas: He spoke out for intellectual liberty and tolerance
and equality of the sexes, division of powers

32. David Hume (1711-1776)
A Treatise of Human Nature: We sometimes form complex ideas for which there
is no corresponding object in the physical world. Example – Batman or Superman.
Each element was once sensed, and entered the theater of the mind in the form
of a real ‘impression.’ Mind puts things together and constructs false ‘ideas
Hume sought to tidy up thoughts and notions: critical analysis of ideas
Investigate every single idea to see whether it was compounded in a way that
does not correspond to reality
Opposed all thoughts and ideas that could not be traced back to
corresponding sense perceptions
"Dismiss all this meaningless nonsense which long has dominated
metaphysical thought and brought it into disrepute"
With Hume’s philosophy, the final link between faith and knowledge was
broken
Hume also rebelled against rationalist thought in the area of ethics that the ability
to distinguish between right and wrong is inherent in human reason. “It is not
reason that determines what we say and do”

33. Berkeley (1685-1753)
Felt that current philosophies and science were a threat to
the Christian way of life
Material reality doesnot exist. We percieve only ideas. we
never have direct experience of things themselves.
Everything we see and feel is ‘an effect of God’s power.We
exist only in the mind of god
Our own perception of time and space can also be merely
figments of the mind Denied existence of a material world
beyond the human mind. Our sense perceptions proceed
from God.

34. Voltaire Montesquieu
The Enlightenment
...from the way needles are made to the way cannons are founded
Rousseau

35. Seven key words
Opposition to authority : Of French philosophers inspired by the English
philosophy and liberal political establishment
Rationalism: Unshakable faith in human reason- Age of Reason.
Enlightenment movement: Greatest monument- huge encyclopedia. All the
great philosophers and men of letters contributed to it. ‘Everything is to be found
here, 'from the way needles are made to the way cannons are founded
Cultural optimism: Once reason and knowledge became widespread, humanity
would make great progress. It could only be a question of time before irrationalism
and ignorance would give way to an ‘enlightened’ humanity
Return to nature: Emphasized intrinsic value of childhood
Natural religion: Religion also had to be brought into harmony with ‘natural’
reason. Deism - God only reveals himself to mankind through nature and natural
laws, never in any ‘supernatural’ way
Human rights: Not content themselves with theoretical views on man’s place in
society - fought actively for ‘natural rights’ (lights that everybody was entitled to
simply by being born) of the citizen. Campaign against censorship, for freedom of
expression in religion, morals, and politics, for abolition of slavery and for a more
humane treatment of criminals

36. Immanuel Kant
Showed the way out of the philosophical impasse in the struggle
between rationalism and empiricism
Rationalists: Basis for all human knowledge Empiricists: Knowledge of the world
lay in the mind proceeded from senses
Kant: Both views are partly right and partly wrong
All our knowledge of the world comes from our sensations. But in our
reason there are decisive factors that determine how we perceive the world
around us
We have no freedom if we lived only as creatures of the senses. But if we
obey universal reason we are free and independent
There are clear limits to what we can know. Mind’s ‘glasses’ set these limits
It is not only mind which conforms to things. Things also conform to the
mind.
Greatest contribution to philosophy : Dividing line between things in
themselves and things as they appear to us

37. Romanticism...Europe's last great cultural epoch
‘Feeling,” imagination,” experience,’ ‘yearning
All of nature - human soul and physical reality - is the expression
of one world spirit - Schelling
Features:
Yearning for something distant and unattainable like bygone
eras; for nature and nature's mysteries
Artists can provide something philosophers can’t express
Urban phenomenon, youth
Romanticism helped strengthen the feeling of national identity
Two forms of Romanticism
Universal Romanticism: Romantics who were
preoccupied with nature, world soul, and artistic genius
National Romanticism : Interested in the history, language
and culture of ‘the people’

38. Hegel ... the reasonable is that which is viable…
First philosopher who tried to salvage philosophy when the 'Romantics had
dissolved everything into spirit'
Hegel’s philosophy – Historicism - A method to understand the progress
of history
Any human society and all human activities (science, art, or philosophy), are
defined by their history, so their essence can be sought only through
understanding that
There are no eternal truths. Only fixed point philosophy can hold onto is
history itself. The current of past traditions and present material conditions
determine what you think. No thought is true forever. (Aristotle - woman is
incomplete man)
Dialectic process -Three stages of knowledge:
Thesis: A thought is proposed on the basis of other, previously proposed thoughts
Antithesis: As soon as one thought is proposed, it will be contradicted by another
Synthesis: Tension between these two opposite ways of thinking is resolved by the
proposal of a third thought which accommodates the best of both points of view
"Philosophy is the history of philosophy"

39. Kierkegaard …Europe is on the road to bankruptcy…
Critique of Romantic idealism and Hegelian historicism - "Both
have obscured the individual’s responsibility for his own life"
Sharp eye for the significance of the individual: We are more than ‘children
of our time.’ Every single one of us is a unique individual who only lives
once
Three concepts
Three stages in the way of life:
Existentialism: Exist for the moment.
Instead of searching for 'The Truth', we Aesthetic stage: Lives for the moment and
should focus on truths that are grasps every opportunity of enjoyment. Slave
important to our individual life, our to ones senses desires and moods.
existence.
Ethical stage: Seriousness and consistency of
Subjective truth: Objective truths are
totally irrelevant to personal life. Really moral choices. Living by the moral laws (Kant)
important truths are personal and Religious stage: Jumping into the abyss’ of
subjective. Only these truths are ‘true
for me' Faith’s in preference to aesthetic pleasure and
reason’s call of duty. Although it can be ‘terrible
Faith: Fundamental questions in life can
to jump into the open arms of the living God,
only be approached through faith; not
through knowledge or reason it is the only path to redemption

40. Marx
"Until now, ‘philosophers have only interpreted the world in various
ways; the point is to change it
Historical materialist
Material changes are the ones that affect history
It is the economic forces in society that create change and drive
history forward
Material, economic, and social relations are the basis of society
This base determines the answers to questions of what was morally
right (Peasant society - marriage)
Society’s ruling class sets the norms for what is right or wrong
History of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class
struggles. Between those who own the means of production and
those who do not. In other words, history is principally a matter of
who is to own the means of production

41. Marx
Criticism of the capitalist method of production
Worker alienation:
Way you think is closely connected to the job you do
Under capitalist system, worker labors for someone else
Worker becomes alien to his work - but at the same time also alien to himself
Revolution:
Capitalist system is marching toward its own destruction; paving way to
communism.
Since ‘upper classes’ do not voluntarily relinquish power, change can only come
through revolution
Dictatorship of the proletariat : For a period, we get a new ‘class
society’ in which the proletarians suppress the bourgeoisie by force
Classless society: After the transition period, the dictatorship of the
proletariat is replaced by a ‘classless society,’ - means of production are
owned ‘by all’. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his
needs.’

42. Darwin Freud
Biologist and natural scientist Developed psychoanalysis
Most openly challenged the Biblical Constant tension between man and his
view of man’s place in Creation surroundings - between his drives and
through 'The Origin of Species'. needs and the demands of society
Darwin advanced two theories:
Man is not really such a rational
All existing vegetable and animal creature
forms were descended from earlier,
more primitive forms through Irrational impulses often determine
biological evolution. what we think, what we dream, and
Evolution was the result of natural what we do
selection
Archaeology of soul: As we store the
In the struggle for life, those that memory of all our experiences deep
were best adapted to their inside us, psychoanalyst can dig deep
surroundings would survive and into the patient’s mind and bring to
perpetuate the race light the experiences that have caused
the patient’s psychological disorder

43. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 to 1980)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Leading light among existentialists
Reacted against Hegel’s ‘historicism.’
Especially popular in the forties after the
Proposed life itself as a
war
counterweight to the anemic interest
in history and Christian ‘slave Existentialism is humanism
morality.’
Man is the only living creature that is
Both Christianity and traditional conscious of its own existence
philosophy had turned away from the
real world and pointed toward Man’s existence takes priority over
‘heaven’ or ‘the world of ideas.’ whatever he might otherwise be.
‘Existence takes priority over essence.’ “
Sought to effect a ‘revaluation of all
values,’ - life force of the strongest Man has no such eternal ‘nature’ to fall
should not be hampered by the back on. We must decide for ourselves
weak. how to live
Renaissance humanists had drawn attention, almost triumphantly, to man’s freedom
and independence
Sartre : Man’s freedom is a curse. ‘Man is condemned to be free. Because having once
been hurled into the world, he is responsible for everything he does"

44. Twentieth Century
Renewal of philosophical currents : Neo-Thomism, logical
empiricism, Neo-Marxism
Materialism: Search for the indivisible ‘elemental particle’ of
which all matter is composed
Ecophilosophy : Western civilization as a whole is on a
fundamentally wrong track, racing toward a head-on collision
with the limits of what our planet can tolerate. There is
something basically wrong with western thought. Our whole
mode of scientific thought is facing a ‘paradigm shift.’ Rise of
‘alternative movements’ advocating holism and a new lifestyle

45. In the Renaissance, the world began to explode. Beginning
with the great voyages of discovery, Europeans started to
travel all over the world.
Today it’s the opposite, an explosion in reverse.
World is becoming drawn together into one great
communications network.
The question is whether history is coming to an end
— or whether on the contrary we are on the threshold
of a completely new age
We are no longer simply citizens of a city—or of a
particular country.
We live in a planetary civilization