Dear Future Philosopher

Dear Future Philosopher (if thou shall beeth one),

Here I am, your very everyday un-average, not-so-ordinary guy writing his last blog to the future. Yes, you are the future. And the future of philosophy, whether or not you really are a true philosopher. This is so because, well, just look at where you are in this class. You are one of the few(?) who have survived Philosophy 1 and have not given up on it. So, you are the future of philosophy… or at least for the semester.

Now, I have to discuss what’s existentially important to me… whatever that means. If you don’t know what that means, do what I did, look it up in a dictionary, “that’s how Dad did it, that’s how America does it, and it’s worked out pretty well so far” (quote from Tony Stark, if you remember who that is in your time) so go get yourself a dictionary.

So, what is existentially important to me… I don’t really have an answer for that. I don’t very much like my existence, so I don’t really find anything important to it. Ummm, food? Water? But that’s the basics, which isn’t too interesting, is it. Well, I guess what’s important to my existence, my being, are good morals, because I dislike a guilty conscience, and my powers, because… well, if you had powers, you would find them important too. Oh, and another thing, which ties them together (sort of), knowledge. Because of my vast knowledge (the word “vast” is questionable), I have good morals. And also because of my knowledge, I know about my powers and how to use them. That’s ok, I'm fine with you not believing me; I’d rather that actually.

This next question is more straightforward. How have I grown as a philosopher. Before taking this course, I always looked at the world differently that other people, and I knew that, and I used it to my advantage. But now taking this voyage, I have been able to not only learn new ways of thinking, new philosophies, etc., but I have also organized, edited, and perfected my own philosophies.

And finally, “How will I continue the ‘dialogue’ of philosophy from this point forward?” Well, that’s easy. I’ll just continue to do what I always do, except now at the end of this year, it will be more organized: I will make others think. I used to do that, I still do that, and I will continue to do that. It’s not even like I try to do so, I just do. The way I speak is enough to make people think, even if it’s a minimal as to make people understand what I'm saying, just like I did with you.

Is It "Sophie's World", "Hilde's World", "The Majour's World"... Or Is It "Jostein's World"?

Where I shall be referring to for this blog is Sophie’s World, chapter 22: “Berkeley”, starting on page 285. (Wow, what number is after 22, 23. 285, lets take the 85 part, 8-5=3 so that’s 23. Wow, paranoia kicking in.) (I can go further, but I don’t want to fixate myself on that, or at least not yet, not now.) Anyway, I want to say a note on my choice of a page before I begin. I misread the blog assignment the first time I read it and I didn’t realize we had to right as if we were Jostein Gaarder’s author. But the page I still wanted to do this page right from the start. Now that I realize what the assignment really is, it plays even better than what I originally planned. So, the story…


“You said that for Berkeley this spirit that everything exists in is the Christian God.”

Hilde’s father paused for a moment, trying to think of how to finally admit to Sophie that she was his creation. Then he made Alberto say:

“Yes, I suppose he did. But for us…”
“Us?”

The old majour had to really consider his words wisely, for if he slipped, things might not happen in his book quite how he wanted to happen.

“For us – for you and me – this ‘will or spirit’ that is the ‘cause of everything in everything’ could be Hilde’s father”

That was the best he could do. After all, he didn’t want to entirely give himself away, he just wanted to open up a new possibility. Now let’s see if Sophie will take the bait.

Sophie’s eyes widened with incredulity. Yet at the same time a realization began to dawn on her.
“Is that what you think?”
“I cannot see any other possibility. This is perhaps the only feasible explanation for everything that has happened to us. All those postcards and signs that have turned up here and there… Hermes beginning to talk… my own involuntary slips of the tongue.”
“I…”

Even though he was trying to follow the majour’s terminology and use of words, he wanted to have his own fun too. “I don’t think the majour will mind…”

“Imagine my calling you Sophie, Hilde! I knew all the time that your name wasn’t Sophie.”
“What are you saying? Now you are definitely confused.”

And so was the majour. What compelled him to write that? As he did not have a way to fix his mistake using only a typewriter, he figured out how to fix this.

“Yes, my mind is going round and round, my child. Like a giddy planet around the sun.”
“Is that sun Hilde’s father?”
“You can say so.”
“Are you saying he’s been a kind of God for us?”

What a question to answer. He wasn’t even sure why he was writing those words. It’s as if someone else was writing it for him. But the only way possible to not let anything be definite is to let Alberto whole-heartedly believe:

“To be perfectly candid, yes. He should be ashamed of himself!”

Bad majour. How can you do such a horrible thing torturing these poor souls by making yourself seem divinely compared to them, Jostein Gaarder thought to himself as he was sitting at his computer typing all of this.

The majour did start to feel slightly bad about making only himself seem so high and mighty. He’ll let someone else take the stage at least for a brief moment; this book is for her after all.

Or so he thinks.

“What about Hilde herself?”
“She is an angel, Sophie.”
“An angel?”
“Hilde is the one this ‘spirit’ turns to.”
“Are you saying that Albert Knag tells Hilde about us?”

Well, I am saying that I am telling you about Jostein Gaarder hinting at his existence to Albert Knag telling Hilde about Sophie and Alberto.