Destined to Be Read

Destined to Be Read

After I had graduated from a technical high school as an Electronic Technician, I decided to continue in the same field. I entered college to pursue an Electronic Engineering degree. When I started college, I was looking forward to taking philosophy because I had read some of my brother’s homework. My professor recommended that we read two books: More Plato and Less Prozac and Sophie's World. I chose to read the first one because I did not have the time to read both since I was taking a lot of credits that semester. That was one of the best classes I have ever taken.

As time passed and I advanced through my career, my interest in it began to decline. I went to several vocational orientations, and I realized that electronics was not the best field for me. I decided to spend some time doing something I liked: reading about philosophy, so I went to the college library and started to look for books. I found immense books that looked like encyclopedias, so I became aware that I needed an introductory one. While searching the library catalog, I encountered Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. I remembered that was the book I had chosen not to read; it is a novel about the history of philosophy. Even though philosophy is a deep and rigorous study, the author takes us through its history with simplicity.

By that time I was taking 21 credits, and most of them were core courses. My ex-classmates must have thought that I was crazy wasting my time reading about philosophy instead of studying for the exams and course assignments. I tried to get good grades that semester, but my priority was reading Sophie's World. It is 633 hundred pages long, but I was never bored.

The book starts as a correspondence course in ph...

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...ts of view, taking time to assess my ideas, trying to be more objective, being open to any critics and to analyze or discuss any conception.

This book did not teach me any particular belief or philosophical ideology; it taught me to doubt, not to be afraid of the unknown or to question the untouchable dogmas of my traditions, to ask questions about things I considered truths, to consider new ideas whether I agree or not, to think about what is really important to me, to find my opinion about social issues, and to be more open-minded.

I learned that ideas come and go through time; that there are questions that never will be answered entirely, but it does not mean that we should stop asking and trying to find responses. I appreciated how beautiful the doubt and uncertainty can be. I regretted not having read Sophie's World before. It is my all time favorite book.