Sophie's World

by Jostein Gaarder

Communist Manifesto in 1848.

‘Marx believed there were a number of inherent contradictions in the capitalist method of production. Capitalism is an economic system which is self-destructive because it lacks rational control.’ ‘That’s good, isn’t it, for the oppressed?’ ‘Yes; it is inherent in the capitalist system that it is marching toward its own destruction. In that sense, capitalism is “progressive” because it is a stage on the way to communism.’ ‘Can you give an example of capitalism being self-destructive?’

he used the same method as all true philosophers: it is important to ask but there is no haste to provide the answer.’

First of all, our planet was quite different from the way it looks today. Since there was no life, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. Free oxygen was first formed by the photosynthesis of plants. And the fact that there was no oxygen is important. It is unlikely that life cells – which, again, can form DNA – could have arisen in an atmosphere containing oxygen.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because oxygen is strongly reactive. Long before complex molecules like DNA could be formed, the DNA molecular cells would be oxidized.’ ‘Really.’ ‘That is how we know for certain that no new life arises today, not even so much as a bacterium or a virus. All life on earth must be exactly the same age. An elephant has just as long a family tree as the smallest bacterium. You could almost say that an elephant – or a human being – is in reality a single coherent colony of monocellular creatures.

‘I was going to say something about the importance of imagination to us philosophers. In order to think new thoughts, we must be bold enough to let ourselves go.

The expression “God is dead” came from Nietzsche.’

‘This is not least the case as regards our ethical choices. We can never lay the blame on “human nature,” or “human frailty” or anything like that. Now and then it happens that grown men behave like pigs and then blame it on “the old Adam.” But there is no “old Adam.” He is merely a figure we clutch at to avoid taking responsibility for our own actions.’

Sartre made an important observation when he said that existential questions cannot be answered once and for all. A philosophical question is by definition something that each generation, each individual even, must ask over and over again.’ ‘A bleak thought.’ ‘I’m not sure I agree. Surely it is by asking such questions that we know we are alive. And moreover, it has always been the case that while people were seeking answers to the ultimate questions, they have discovered clear and final solutions to many other problems.