Sophie’s World Characters

Sophie Amundsen’s best friend, who shares some of her curiosity, if not her interest in philosophy.

Sophie Amundsen’s grandmother.

Sophie Amundsen’s cat.

A classmate of Sophie Amundsen.

A classmate of Sophie Amundsen.

The Labrador retriever who delivers messages from Alberto Knox to Sophie Amundsen.

A family friend of Hilde Møller Knag, who lives in Copenhagen.

A family friend of Hilde Møller Knag, who lives in Copenhagen.

An ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was made of water.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed that the world was made of one unknowable substance.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was made of air.

Foundational Greek philosopher who introduced ontology (the study of the nature of being) and rationalism into Western thought.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was in a constant state of change.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was made of earth, air, fire, and water.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was made of tiny, intermingling parts.

Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the world was made of small indivisible units called atoms.

Ancient Greek philosopher whose student, Plato, transcribed his teachings in the Platonic dialogues. Socrates was known for declaring his own ignorance, and for questioning others to draw out their innate wisdom.

Ancient Greek philosopher whose Platonic dialogues raised important questions of ontology (the nature of being), epistemology (the nature of knowledge), ethics, and politics, and arguably remain the key works of Western philosophy.

Ancient Greek philosopher who made major contributions to logic, ethics, literary criticism, ontology, and many other philosophical areas.

Neo-Platonic philosopher who celebrated the mystical side of the intellect.

Important Christian thinker credited with merging Greek philosophy with Christianity.

Scholastic Christian philosopher celebrated for his analysis of Christian thought using the works of Aristotle and Plato.

Medieval mystic, philosopher, and Christian scholar.

Important rationalist philosopher who used systematic doubt to analyze the world in terms of mind and perception.

Important rationalist philosopher who challenged conventional definitions of free will by arguing that the material world and the world of ideas are just two sides of the same coin, and both are reflections of God.

English philosopher whose theories of liberty paved the way for the American Revolution, and who also argued that the mind is a “blank slate” that gradually acquires experiences and ideas over a lifetime.

Important Enlightenment figure who was interested in empiricism—the doctrine that the world can only be understood through careful observation and personal experience—and acted as a “janitor” for Christian and rationalist thought of the late Middle Ages.

Enlightenment philosopher who critiqued civilization and popularized (but did not invent) the idea of the “noble savage.”

Early French feminist and abolitionist writer who was executed following the French Revolution.

Scottish philosopher who built off of Hume’s empiricism to study the mind’s perception of the world.

Important Enlightenment philosopher who proposed that the mind perceives the external world through a series of pre-determined categories, such as space and time.

Enlightenment philosopher who defended the governmental balance of powers.

Enlightenment philosopher who defended freedom of speech.

German Romantic philosopher.

Important German Romantic philosopher who popularized dialectical reasoning and proposed that human history progresses to a state of unity called the World Spirit.

Important 19th century Danish philosopher who paved the way for Existentialism by disavowing the kinds of universal truths proposed by Hegel.

19th century German thinker who popularized dialectical materialism—the analysis of history and culture in concrete, economic terms—paving the way for Communist revolutions in Russia and China.

19th century English biologist who developed the theory of evolution and natural selection, which explains the origin and growth of species.

Viennese doctor and the founder of psychoanalysis, the study of the unconscious mind.

19th century German Romantic philosopher who criticized Christianity and the Christian forms of morality.

Political philosopher whose thought experiment about the formation of a perfect society is mentioned at several points in Sophie’s World.

20th century Existentialist and the lifelong companion of Simone de Beauvoir. He criticized prior European philosophy on the grounds that it presupposed a human “essence” and neglected the basic facts of existence.

20th century Existentialist and companion of Jean-Paul Sartre. She criticized the supposed differences between the sexes on the grounds that they wrongly presupposed a feminine “essence.”

20th century Absurdist author who was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Ancient Greek epic poet.

Ancient Greek historian.

Ancient Greek historian.

Ancient Greek physician.

Ancient Greek conqueror and dictator.

The founder and central focus of Christianity.

Important Christian thinker and spokesperson who, after the death of Jesus Christ, popularized the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, original sin, and conversion.

Early modern astronomer who proposed that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Religious and political leader of the early Renaissance who launched the Protestant Reformation by challenging the authority of the Catholic Church.

Italian scientist who popularized experimentation and observation in science, paving the way for Sir Isaac Newton.

English scientist and mathematician who paved the way for Deism by showing that the universe is governed by a set of unbreakable, universal laws of motion.

Famous playwright who bridged the gap between the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Brutal leader of France following the French Revolution of 1789.

King of France during the French Revolution.

A famous English Romantic poet.

A Romantic writer who died young. Heloved a girl named Sophie, who died shortly after turning 15.

English thinker whose population studies influenced Charles Darwin.

19th century German philologists who compiled German folklore into a series of stories.

19th century scholar who compiled Scandinavian folklore.

The intellectual partner of Karl Marx.

German polymath and the author of Faust, one of the greatest German works of literature.

English poet and author who was influenced by Charles Darwin.

Dictator of the Soviet Union.

Early dictator of the Soviet Union and important leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

A 20th century author who was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre.

An ancient Greek mythological character and symbol of the inevitability of fate.

The miserly protagonist of the novel A Christmas Carol.

A character from a popular fairy tale of the 19th century.

The protagonist of Lewis Carroll’sAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The protagonist of one of the tales of the Arabian Nights.

A fairy tale character who tries to escape a wolf.

A fairy tale character whose subjects are too intimidated to tell him that he’s naked.

A magical goose from the book The Adventures of Nils.

An adventurous boy from the book The Adventures of Nils.

The ancient Norse god of thunder.

The ancient Norse king of the gods.

Ancient Greek god of the sun.

Ancient Norse goddess of the sun.

The fictional detective from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

A Disney cartoon character.

A Disney cartoon character.

A fictional children’s character.

A fictional children’s character created by author J. M. Barrie.

The first human being, according to the Bible.

The second human being and first woman, according to the Bible.

Biblical figure who saves mankind from the Great Flood.