Sophie's World
在閱讀過程裡，我偶爾在手機記下筆記和重點，總覺得讀過的這些東西很有可能會想要拿出來再仔細研究。結果我決定好好地做自己的附錄，有一天當deja vu閃現的時候，我可以找出打開自己的潛意識裡讀過的那個篇章的鑰匙。
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《Sophie‘s World》要言簡意賅地解釋它是什麼書的話，就是簡易哲學史。
“哲學史”三個字聽起來就是有許多難懂的哲理和歷史，好像沒有概念的人壓根都無法把這本書看下去。但是這本書以兩個15歲的少女作為主角及對象，用對青少年的口吻去解釋從古至今的哲學思想以及思想隨著時代變化的過程，把複雜的哲理用觸手可及的生活事物作為例子去解釋。不過於仔細去鑽研每個哲學家的理論，而是把重要的概論用青少年（或初學者）可以理解的方式讓他們消化。所以這本書不難懂，而且非常有趣，可以說是意猶未盡。
雖然書裡的哲學史講的是真正的歷史和哲學，但整本書是貫穿在故事軸上的（也就是兩個少女的世界）。所以當你一邊學習和理解概論的時候，一邊也在神秘的故事線上觀察和好奇發生在少女的世界背後的真相是什麼。（到底有沒有所謂的真相呢？）
從古希臘哲學，一直到中世紀、文藝復興、啟蒙時代，和近代19至20世紀，內容涵蓋了自然、人類、科學、文化、宗教、世界、社會、精神等等的範疇；只能說這本書內容太豐富了，難怪我都不由自主地向身邊的人推薦這本書。
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最後要來說閱讀後對我比較大的影響，大概是開拓思想的範圍吧。看了幾千年下來的哲學家和科學家的各種思想，範圍之大、內容之天馬行空與廣泛，有的理論就站在21世紀的我們已確切掌握的科學證據和認知而言是很可笑而且不可理喻的，也有的文化思想是現代所無法容忍的。但思想是隨著時代與環境演變的，發生和提出的當下並不是一件理所當然的事。
世界上還存在許多沒辦法具體解釋的事，我們應該不停對世界提出質疑、不停思考，也不需要在意我們的觀點是不是大多數人所認可的（即使是一些理所當然的事，都可能有一毫米的漏洞值得我們去質疑它）。如何去思考一件事是borderless的，即使到最後我們不一定能夠得到一個總結，但思考的過程本身總是能夠讓我們領悟到一些什麼，並同時拓展我們的世界觀。
Appendix:
1. Before 600 B.C. — Mythology
2. 600 B.C. — Source of all things is a basic substance
-> Thales: Source of all things was water.
-> Anaximander: Our world was evolve and dissolve in something called "boundless".
-> Anaximenes: Source of all things was "air" or "vapor".
3. 500 B.C. — Problem of Change
-> Parmenides: Everything that exists had always existed. Nothing can come out of nothing. Nothing could become anything other than it was. Witness the change is a "perceptual illusion".
-> Heraclitus: All things flow. Basic characteristics of nature was "constant change" or "flow".
-> Empedocles: Nature consists of four basic elements - earth, air, fire, water. All nature processes were due to the composing and separating of the four elements.
-> Anaxagoras: Nature is built up of an infinite number of minute particles.
4. 460 B.C. — Democritus
-> Everything was built up of "atoms", which was eternal and immutable.
-> When a body died or disintegrated, atoms dispersed and compose new bodies.
-> Agrees that everything in "nature" flows (forms), but there're something eternal and immutable that did not flow (atoms).
5. 450 B.C. — Socrates
-> "He who knows what good is will do good".
-> No one could possibly be happy if they acted against their better judgement.
-> Beliefs in existence of eternal and absolute rules for what was right or wrong. (Natural modesty)
6. 400 B.C. — Plato
-> Reality is divided into two regions - "world of senses", "world of ideas".
-> We can never have true "knowledge" of anything that is in constant state of change. We can only have "opinions" about things that belongs to the "world of senses".
-> But we can have true "knowledge" of things we understand with our reason, which is in "world of ideas". It is eternal and immutable.
7. 360 B.C. — Aristotle
-> Nothing exists in consciousness has not first been experienced by the senses.
-> Every change in nature is a transformation of substance from "potential" to "actual".
-> Four causes: material cause, efficient cause, formal cause, final cause.
-> "Golden Mean": only by exercising balance and temperance can achieve a happy life.
8. 300 B.C. — Hellenism
-> The Cynics: True happiness is not found in external advantages such as material luxury, political power, or good health.
-> The Stoics: There exists a universal rightness, so-called "Nature Law". It was based on timeless human and universal reason, did not alter with time and place.
-> The Epicureans: The pleasurable results of an action must always be weighed against its possible side effects.
-> Neoplatonism: The world is a span between two poles. One end is the God (eternal ideas), another end is absolute darkness (matters of man are made of).
9. A.D. — Jesus
-> He preached salvation and God's forgiveness for everyone.
-> Nobody can earn God's mercy. God's mercy is boundless, but we have to turn to God and pray for his forgiveness.
10. 40 A.D. — Paul (Christian missionary)
-> The search for God is natural to all men.
-> God has revealed Himself to mankind and has in truth reached out to them.
11. 0 A.D. to 1400 A.D. — The Middle Age
-> St. Augustine: Evil has no independent existence. It's the "absence of God".
-> St. Thomas Aquinas: There need not be any conflict between philosophy (or reason) and Christian Revelation (or faith).
12. From late 14th century A.D. — Renaissance
-> "Individualism": We are not only human beings, we are unique individuals.
-> "Empirical method": One bases one's knowledge of things on one's own experience. (Galileo Galilei)
-> "Heliocentric world picture": Everything centers around the sun. (Nicolaus Copernicus)
-> Planets move in elliptical orbits with sun at one focus. (Johannes Kepler)
-> "Law of inertia": A body remains in the state as long as no external force compels on it. (Galileo Galilei)
-> "Law of universal gravitation" (Issac Newton)
-> "Reformation" (Martin Luther)
13. 17th century A.D. — The Baroque
-> Materialism and Idealism.
14. 1596 A.D. — Descartes
-> We cannot accept anything as being true unless we can clearly and distinctly perceive it.
-> Philosophy should go from simple to the complex to construct a new insight.
-> One should doubt everything.
-> There're two different forms of reality, "thought" and "extension". There is a constant interaction between mind and body, linked through brain.
15. 1632 A.D. — Spinoza
-> Everything that exists can be reduced to one single reality which simply called "Substance".
-> The various phenomena are different "modes" of the attribute of thought or extension.
-> Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings.
-> To see everything from the perspective of eternity.
16. 1632 A.D. — Locke (Empiricist)
-> "Sensation" and "Reflection"
-> Knowledge that cannot be traced back to a simple sensation is therefore false knowledge.
-> "Primary qualities" and "Secondary qualities"
17. 1685 A.D. — Berkeley (Empiricist)
-> The only things that exist are those we perceive, but we don't perceive "material".
-> What we perceive is the feeling, sensation, but not the matter.
18. 1711 A.D. — Hume (Empiricist)
-> Two different types of perception, "impressions" and "ideas"
-> Complex ideas can be formed for which there is no corresponding object in physical world through pieces of impressions.
-> We cannot use reason to tell us how we "ought to" act.
19. 1751 A.D. — The Enlightenment
20. 1724 A.D. — Kant
-> Distinction between "the thing in itself" and "the thing for me".
-> "Material" of knowledge (external conditions) and "form" of knowledge (internal conditions).
-> Only when you do something purely out of duty can it be called a moral action.
21. 1850 A.D. — Romanticism
22. 1799 A.D. — Hegel
-> Three stages of knowledge: "Thesis", "Antithesis", "Synthesis"
-> Dialectic approach: "Negation" and "Negation of the negation"
-> Forms of "world spirit": Subjective spirit, Objective spirit, Absolute spirit
23. 1813 A.D. — Kierkegaard (Existentialist)
-> It's more important to find the truths that are meaningful to individual's life.
-> Three stages on life's way: Aesthetic stage, Ethical stage, Religious stage (Choice comes from within)
24. 1818 A.D. — Marx (Historical materialist)
-> Material factors of the nature have been decisive for historical development.
-> Material change creates new spiritual relations.
-> Three levels in bases of society: Conditions of production, Means of production, Production relations (capitalist method of production).
-> Capitalism is an economic system which is self-destructive.
25. 1809 A.D. — Darwin
-> All living forms were descended from more primitive forms by way of biological evolution.
-> Evolution was the result of natural selection (Only the best have survived).
26. 1856 A.D. — Freud
-> "Unconscious" are to store the things we have repressed.
-> "Superego": The world's moral expectations become part of human beings.
-> Unconscious reaction: Parapraxes, Rationalise, Project
-> Unconscious tries to communicate with conscious through dreams.
-> The "manifest dream" (actual dream image) and "latent dream thoughts" (meaning behind it).
27. 1844 A.D. — Nietzsche
-> "Be true to the world". "Do not listen to those who offer you supernatural expectations".
28. 1905 A.D. — Sartre (Existentialist)
-> Existentialism is humanism. (Existentialists start from humanity itself.)
-> Existence takes priority over essence.
-> A man feels "alien" in a world without meaning.
29. The Big Bang
-> The only way we can look out into space is to look back in time.
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