Sophie's World

Hilde feels increasing sympathy for Alberto and Sophie, believing her father has gone too far in his show of power. She realizes Sophie is trying to influence her directly and is succeeding; with this, she decides to try and help them. Hilde knows that to help, she must read further, so she begins the section on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Alberto describes Hegel as a “child of Romanticism” (357), who worked as a professor in multiple universities and whose philosophy spread rapidly among the educated. Hegel believed the world spirit spoke of by Schelling was actually the result of human cognition and intention. He also asserted that truth is subjective and does not exist outside of human reason. Alberto explains that Hegel’s philosophy was more of a “method for understanding the progress of history” (358). Hegel’s belief was that knowledge and truth change as time progresses and generations come and go; therefore, there is no universal or eternal truths except the existence of history itself. Alberto compares Hegel’s idea of truth and history to a river. It is always a river, but its contents, details, and directions change over time and space. In this sense, something may be true in the moment, or from where a particular person stands at a particular time, but it may not be true further down the river.