Sophie’s World: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Sophie’s Mom asks Sophie about her upcoming 15th birthday party. Sophie seems indifferent to the prospect of turning 15 (her birthday is June 15th). Later that afternoon, Sophie sees Hermes near the den, carrying a new envelope. Inside the envelope, there’s an extra letter in addition to the usual one: in this extra letter, Alberto forgives Sophie for entering his cabin.

Sophie begins to read Alberto’s main letter, “PHILOSOPHER AND SCIENTIST.” Aristotle, the letter begins, was a pupil of Plato. Aristotle was a good student, but he disagreed with Plato about the idea of forms, arguing that Plato was neglecting the concrete realities of the world in favor of the moreabstract world of ideas. Aristotle argued that the idea of a “perfect horse” is just an illusion, based on the horse’s hundreds of qualities. Aristotle also denied that mankind is born with innate ideas. It’s only by exercising our brains—by observing and studying—that we gain ideas about life.

One of Aristotle’s most important ideas was about the relationship between the chicken and the egg. In an egg is locked the potentialto become a chicken in the future. All living things have an inborn nature—for example, it’s the nature of chickens to cluck and lay eggs. But this inborn nature can only be achieved over time, and sometimes with conscious effort.

Aristotle also perfected a theory of causes. There are many different ways that we can talk about causes. One way is to talk about the “material cause.” The material cause of rain is the moisture in clouds that forms the rain itself. There’s also the “efficient cause” of rain—the fact that the moisture cools to form raindrops. We could also talk about the “formal cause” of rain—for example, the fact that it is the nature of water to fall to earth. Finally, there is the “final cause”—the fact that the purpose of rain is to nourish plants and animals. Only by putting together these four explanations for rain can we arrive at a total understanding of “why” rain exists. The letter acknowledges that science doesn’t really operate according to this logic anymore. Instead of saying that the “purpose” of rain is to nourish plants, scientists say that plants have evolved to gain nourishment from rain—i.e., there’s no “master plan” that says that water has an inherent purpose of any kind.

Aristotle used his rigorous study of causes to develop his own form of logic. The letter gives an example of Aristotelian logic: if we agree that all living creatures are mortal, and that Hermes is a living creature, then we can conclude that Hermes is mortal. Aristotle used his studies of the “nature” of things to perform more complex logical operations.

The letter discusses how Aristotle classified human beings—i.e., how he distinguished them from animals. While all animals have the ability to move, humans have the additional power of being able to think. Aristotle also believed that there was a God. This God was responsible for “putting the world in motion”—causing the first events in the universe, which in turn caused further events, and so on.

Aristotle believed that there was a correct way to live life. One could live a life of material pleasures, a life of responsible citizenship, or a life of intellectual pleasures. Aristotle concluded that only a combination of all three kinds of pleasure would be truly fulfilling. In general, Aristotle believed in the idea of balance and compromise.

Aristotle also classified different kinds of societies, much like Plato. There are monarchies, ruled by a king, oligarchies, ruled by a small handful of people, and democracies, ruled by the masses. Each form of government has the potential to be successful or to fail.

Aristotle’s views of women were less progressive than Plato’s—he considered women imperfect copies of men. Women, as far as he was concerned, were just “soil” to help men reproduce. Unfortunately, Aristotle’s ideas about women were so well-known that they echoed down through the Middle Ages. With this, the letter ends.

Sophie’s reading of the letter influences her greatly. She decides to be neat and orderly in her thinking. She goes to feed her pet fish, telling them, “You belong to the animal kingdom.” She sneaks into her Mom’s room, where she finds her mother sleeping. She whispers to her mother, “You have the rare capacity of thought.” Mom wakes up, irritably, and tells Sophie to leave the room.

Back in her room, Sophie begins putting together Alberto’s letters to form a single book on philosophy. She looks forward to her next letter, and ignores the fact that she has homework to do for school.