Reflections and  Connections #3

As I delve further and further into the novel that is known as Sophie’s World, I begin to notice many similarities between Spinoza’s philosophy and Sophie’s life. Although I have only just learned of Spinoza, many of his philosophies seem to be related to the events that occur in Sophie’s life; I feel a strong link between them. Spinoza had the belief that the universe was rational, and things that seemed irrational were really just complex versions of rational things. Sophie sees many things that are unbelievable and unexplainable and, most of all, irrational. In her world she sees dogs that can talk and finds messages inside of bananas. These things do not happen to your normal human being. Although it seems impossible to see and hear these things, Spinoza would believe that there were rational explanations. It seems pretty rational to me that Sophie could have been staring at Hermes’ mouth and she may have heard the words “happy birthday” come from someone else’s mouth. The senses of hearing and sight would link in Sophie’s brain and she would conclude that Hermes had spoken, when he really didn’t. Sophie could have been experiencing something entirely rational, but she may have convinced herself that it was irrational. So, as Sophie tries to learn Spinoza’s philosophy she literally experiences a situation relating to it first-hand. Although she doesn’t agree with Spinoza’s philosophy yet and believes that irrational things do happen I believe that she will shortly realize that her mind can deceive her and lead her to believe that irregular things happen.