Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

In the novel "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder, Sophie Amundsen is the main protagonist and the character through whom the story unfolds in the beginning. Hilde Moller Knag, on the other hand, is a character within the book, but she is not directly related to Sophie.

Hilde Moller Knag is introduced as the daughter of Albert Knag, who is a major character in the story. Hilde exists in a separate reality, as she is a fictional character created by Albert Knag as part of his plan to teach  about philosophy and the nature of reality. The story alternates between Sophie's world, where Sophie is learning about philosophy from a mysterious mentor named Alberto Knox, and Hilde's world, where she discovers the book about Sophie's life that her father has written for her.

So, while Hilde Moller Knag is a significant character in the book, she is not directly related to Sophie Amundsen but rather connected to the fictional narrative created by Albert Knag to educate his daughter. She is the reason that Sophie and Alberto were created in the first place. Hilde bears a strong resemblance to Sophie in that she learns to think philosophically alongside Sophie. She is compassionate, because she feels for Alberto and Sophie, even though they appear to be fictional characters. 

Hilde believes that Sophie exists somewhere, although she cannot explain how. At age fifteen, she still retains enough belief in the mysterious nature of life and the inexplicable mysteries that surround us to hold a firm belief in something that would be characterized as impossible. But it turns out that, although she does not know it, Hilde is correct—Sophie and Alberto do "exist" in some strange way. Hilde represents that sort of person who can think and reason well but also is willing to believe in what she feels to be true regardless of what anyone else thinks. So, in some ways, Hilde represents that ideal reader for Gaarder's book. Sophie's World is designed to be both a novel and a history of philosophy, and someone like Hilde would understand and think about the philosophical ideas that are put forth but would also be partial to the fantastical aspects of the story.

An addictive blend of mystery, philosophy and fantasy about life, the universe and everything. 

There are lot of questions to ponder through out the book like:

• Who are you?
• Where does the world come from?

At somepoint something must have come from nothing...the only thing we require to be a good philosopher is the faculty of wonder...so The Natural philosophers belive that nothing can come from nothing. Myths are a precarious balance between the forces of good and evil. Fate is the fortuneteler trying to forsee something that is really quite unforeseeable. Per Socrates wisest is she who knows what she does not know. Athens say several tall buildings have risen from the ruins. Then we have Plato, Aristotle, Hellenism, Descartes,  Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Bjerkely, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Darwin, Freud British empiricism (from sense) , continental rationalism, 

We go through the Major's cabin, various exchange of letters and post cards, various cultures and ages, Renaissance, the enlightenment, French enlightenment movement covering cultural optimism, return to nature, Natural religion, Human rights, the fairy tale genre - Grimm's Fairy Tales like Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel.....points and counterpoints and our own time.

Everything is one and this one is a divine mystery that everyone shares. 

Time and space are two forms of intuitions. There are certain conditions governing the mind's operation which influence the way we experience the world. 

The tension between 'being' and 'nothing' becomes resolved in the concept of 'becoming'. Because if something is in the process of becoming, it both is and is not. 

With strong emhasis on God's activity in the course of history, people were preoccupied with the writing of history for many thousands of years. And these historical roots constitute the very core of their holy scriptures. 

Main difference between human and other animals are human reasoning. 

A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The astronaut said I have been to outer space many times, but never seen God, to this the brain surgeon said, I have operated many clever brains but never seen a single thought. 

We may desire something very badly that the outside world will not accept. We may repress our desires. That means we try to push them away and forget about them. There is a third element in the human mind. Echos of moral demands and judgments. World's moral expectations become part of us. Freud called this the superego. Conscience is a component of the superego. What we remember is preconscious, what we do not is unconscious. 

A phenomena that we did not believe in before may be true. our great grandparent might not have known about TV or electricity or mobile or computers.