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O Dia em que Sócrates Vestiu Jeans

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Ben Warner, um típico adolescente a passar umas férias de Verão enfadonhas, surpreende-se quando Lila, uma mulher jovem e atraente, lhe faz um bizarro convite. Embora tentado, Ben sente-se inseguro. E tem razões para isso! Lila quer levá-lo para o Mundo das Ideias, um lugar completamente desconhecido para Ben. Mas Lila tem uma missão. O seu chefe, Sócrates, presidente do Mundo das Ideias - cargo que mantém há 1209 anos - fez uma aposta com o seu arqui-rival Wittgenstein. Para a ganhar e maneter o seu cargo, Sócrates terá de fazer crer a Ben que a filosofia pode mudar a sua vida.

Desconhecendo o que lhe vai acontecer, Ben entra num inesperado mundo paralelo. E assim começa a sua viagem mental à volta das grandes e pequenas questões da vida. O que é a felicidade? A morte é o que de pior nos pode acontecer? Teremos vontade própria? E, a pouco e pouco, Ben começa a interrogar-se sobre as mais variadas questões e a acreditar que a vida é muito mais do que um jogo de futebol.

Excêntrico, divertido e original, O Dia em que Sócrates Vestiu Jeans é a história de um jovem que escapa da sua vida entediante para um excitante mundo paralelo e desperta para a real importância da vida através da aprendizagem dos conceitos básicos da filosofia.

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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256 people want to read

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Lucy Eyre

7 books2 followers

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5 stars
71 (14%)
4 stars
161 (32%)
3 stars
184 (36%)
2 stars
70 (13%)
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15 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
Profile Image for Cassandra Kay Silva.
716 reviews319 followers
July 12, 2012
This book would be perfect for the right audience. I would say a girl or boy somewhere between 10 and 17 or so who did not know much about philosophy. Its a good introduction to many ideas that adults have pondered over the years of growing up. It delves into some very basic but very fundamental questions about humanity and what it means to be human, about death and how things exist in relation to each other. Unfortunately for the adult audience it is so basic as to render it a pointless read. But for someone who has not yet experienced these questions for him/herself this could be a good gateway into enjoying philosophy. Be warned there really is no plot/storyline to this that one could comment on so expect nothing in this area.
Profile Image for Mon.
178 reviews227 followers
November 17, 2010
It's a bit like those educational science shows they used to show in class after exams when nobody's paying attention since nothing counts toward the final report anyway. Characters and plots are heavily compromised for the sake for making the philosophical concepts more relevant and thus remain rudimentary. Extra star for Paul Jackson's super cute illustrations and an outstanding layout (the hardcover edition anyway). Yes, I'm shallow like that, maybe I shouldn't be reading popular philosophy in the first place.
24 reviews12 followers
October 1, 2013
Eyre has managed to present Philosophy in a way my mind never acknowledged;

The World of Ideas is a sort of an in-between place for dead philosophers and philosopher enthusiasts ranging from Immanuel Kant to Aristotle. Lila, an assistant to Socrates finds an average teenage boy from the regular world to teach philosophy for a bet against Wittgenstein that he can uncover the world of Philosophy to someone and have them love it.

The concept of this book was ingenious! The initial ideas and the way they were presented were better than the latter in this book but the relationship between Lila and Ben was built so wonderfully. I also really liked how the characters were dead philosophers advocating their beliefs, you even had Karl Marx in there going "Wanna go on the coconuts?" "Isn't that a bit capitalist?" "Oh no, I glue the coconuts down to subvert the bourgeois system." I loved how there were such casual references to the most renowned philosophers like Nietzsche playing a game of tennis. I was really impressed by the delivery of all the arguments, how the situations were presented and how the arguments were structured. A lot of the arguments were extremely interesting and most of them were some questions that already exist in my life like the "Is there really a right or wrong?" etc and it was so great to hear comedic conversations between deceased philosophers articulating my thoughts for both side of the argument and introducing me to new aspects of it. I feared the ending of the novel because how do you just end something like this but Eyre really aced it making me feel emotions which I wasn't consciously aware of for the characters in the novel. Ahh- you know, for once the silly reviews on the books were so relevant I'm just going to slide them in here: "A nimble, witty introduction to the basic tenets of philosophy." "A playful exploration of philosophical ideas."
Profile Image for Amiad.
477 reviews17 followers
March 18, 2016
ספר על פילוסופיה לנוער. נחמד אבל ההשוואה לעולמה של סופי המצוין היא שגויה. הספר לא עוסק בהיסטוריה של הפילוסופיה אלא רק מעלה דיונים פילוסופיים וגם הסיפור הרבה פחות משמעותי.
Profile Image for Claire.
31 reviews
November 22, 2025
honestly i really hated this and skimmed a lot of it, wouldn't have bothered if i were a slow reader. lots of sighing and looking up at an imaginary camera as if i were in The Office. the plot is thin/barely existent, then wrapped up much too easily and conveniently, and the amount of philosophy (and cast of philosophers) too dense by comparison.

BUT i could still see myself enjoying it, or at least finding it interesting 15 or so years ago. even then, not sure it's for me personally, but would appeal more to tweens and teens with an interest in philosophy. a good accessible introduction to the subject for young readers who haven't had the opportunity to study philosophy, perhaps

HOWEVER
- why make ben and lila so different in age and introduce a weird romantic tension? they could have been say, 18 and 21 and it wouldn't have been as weird (still a bit weird) or at least make it one-sided (not weird for ben to fancy a 25 year old, very weird for lila to fancy a 15 year old)
- ben says philosophy makes his life better but only because he fancies lila/knows about the bet, which seems like a big flaw in the already flawed premise of the book. also philosophy made him very annoying
- for a book about thinking, the more i think about this book the worse it gets so i will stop

(picked out for me by my brother, who was tasked to choose a few books from charity shops for my christmas gift. it's been a good exercise in reading things i'd never choose otherwise but he's yet to strike gold)
Profile Image for Petra.
701 reviews11 followers
June 22, 2023
In de wereld van ideeën 'wonen' mensen die niet meer leven. Socrates is er de baas en sluit een weddenschap af dat je leven beter wordt door filosofie. Ben wordt het doel van deze weddenschap en leert via Lila, de secretaris van Socrates, de wereld van de filosofie, de bijbehorende theoriën en soms de filosofen zelf, kennen.

Ergens heeft dit boek iets weg van De wereld van Sofie, maar dan voor een iets jonger publiek. Terwijl Ben uit dit boek en Sofie ongeveer van dezelfde leeftijd zijn, middelbare scholieren. Waar Sofie de wereld van filosofie leert kennen langs de verschillende tijdperken van de verschillende filosofen (dus van Socrates tot aan Kant en Rousseau) verloopt de kennismaking met filosofie in de wereld van ideeën iets minder chronologisch.

Nadelen zijn dat het ene deel over filosofie begrijpelijker is opgeschreven dan het andere gedeelte. Hele korte hoofdstukken (van een paar zinnen) worden afgewisseld met langere stukken, omdat daar een filosofische theorie uiteen wordt gezet. Terwijl in relatief weinig tekst dan toch veel informatie gegeven wordt. Een conclusie of samenvatting van de theorie mist ook vaak. Personages worden niet echt uitgediept en de filosofen zijn daarom soms wat lastig te herkennen.

Het is een leuke kennismaking met de wereld van filosofie/filosofen, maar vond de Wereld van Sofie beter.
Profile Image for Doni.
666 reviews
January 8, 2022
Overall, this was a fun foray into philosophical exploration. Lila introduces a 15-year-old boy named Ben to the World of Ideas, a place after death for philosophers to hang out and argue with each other. Socrates and Wittgenstein have wagered a bet. Socrates intends to prove that philosophy improves lives. Wittgenstein bets against.
I have two problems with this set-up. First, most of the philosophers, though given a first and last name, are not easily recognizable. For example, a Jeremy argues for utilitarianism, but is given a different last name than Bentham. I would have liked it better if the philosophers were more easily identifiable with their positions. The other aspect I disliked was that Socrates won the bet by Ben simply stating that philosophy improved his life. He didn’t provide any reasons which was not exactly philosophically persuasive. In fact, throughout the story, whenever Ben tries to share the wisdom he has gleaned from the World of Ideas, his friends mock him. Also, Ben is more motivated by his crush on Lila than on the perks of philosophy itself.
Still, the book was on par with Sophie’s World, maybe even a bit better since the ideas are better incorporated into plot and dialogue than in the letters exchanged by Sophie and her teacher.
Profile Image for Kevin Treweeks.
114 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2018
How I miss "In Other Words" Plymouth's long defunct alternative book shop. I found this little gem there twenty years ago at least but never forgot it. In some ways it's a philosophy primer but as you persevere you realise you are in fact on a journey along with the protagonists to examine your own life. I re-read this book, a compliment I don't pay many books, because I decided it was time to share it's charms.
19 reviews
June 15, 2023
Απευθύνεται κυρίως σε έφηβο κοινό μιας και ένας ενήλικας που το διαβάζει, σίγουρα έχει αναρωτηθεί για πολλά από αυτα τα αναπάντητα φιλοσοφικά ερωτήματα καθώς μεγάλωνε. Παρόλα αυτά αποτελεί μια εξαιρετική ιδέα η σύνδεση του αιώνιου κόσμου των ιδεών και φιλοσόφων με ένα πραγματικό κόσμο. Πολύ ευχάριστο ανάγνωσμα!
Profile Image for lottie pike.
45 reviews4 followers
April 30, 2021
iconic book i first read when i was in like year 10, just a little philosophy baby. i actually understood the comedic references this time round which was fun. would recommend if you're a philosophy nerd!!
Profile Image for Luna Van den Heuvel.
8 reviews2 followers
May 26, 2022
Leuk voor de introductie van de filosofie. Literair gezien is het zeker geen hoogstandje. Theorie in een fictief jasje.
Profile Image for Anna.
189 reviews
March 3, 2018
Byzonder leerzaam. Voor wie meer wil weten over filosofie zou dit boek eens moeten lezen. Aan de ene kant leest het makkelijk weg en is het goed toegankelijk voor de jongere lezers. En toch moet je heel goed lezen wat er nu staat. Soms was het een beetje saai,maar toch geef ik het 5 sterren.
Uitgebreide recensie volgt snel op mijn blog.
Profile Image for Jerzy.
563 reviews138 followers
January 17, 2009
Decent fodder for conversation or rumination. If you had to choose only one of the two, I'd read Sophie's World instead -- I thought If Minds Had Toes was clumsier in terms of plot and writing style. But philosophical ideas are indeed explained well here, in the form of easy-to-follow dialogues. So the dialogues are worth reading on their own if you just skim over the silly plot.
(For instance, it's kind of jarring to read the views of philosophers arguing for materialism(?) -- no soul, no ghost in the machine, just the physical body -- when their characters are in fact ghosts themselves... And Ben never seems to *really* feel philosophy makes his life better; he just agrees with Lila when she suggest it, as he agrees with her on most everything else. Poor Wittgenstein should have argued harder.)

I do agree with this: "The meaning of a word is the way that it is used. Meaning does not come from a correspondence between a proposition and a fact." The way we see the world, and all these deep questions that we argue about, are essentially based on the way linguistic conventions turned out. If we used words a bit differently, we might argue about philosophy in a totally different way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Zhenwei Chan.
18 reviews
May 7, 2007
To tell the truth, i'm a bit disappointed. This book started out with so much potential. The protagonist is a teenager and the theme is how philosophy could help in making his life better. wonderful! so finally there's a book that links a much obsolete subject with everyday life!

Yet, as the story unfolds the boy gets wrapped up in OBSELETE topics like "What is reality".... nothing to do with MODERN DAY LIFE!!! Along the way, the boy is ridiculed by his classmates, worried for by his parents and absolutely confused by his affection for an older women. All in the name of philosophy and yet, in the end, he decides that philosophy still made his life better....? how is tt possible if not for the sheer biasness of the author, herself a PhD in the subject.

Perhaps Wittgenstein was right; that philosophy is a fruitless endeavor. Look at Socrates, the master. In his life time he was deemed an outcast, laughed upon for his ignorance which he so proudly trumpeted, and eventually sentenced to death by the hemlock..... did tt seem like philosophy improved his life at all? So, i guess tt's the REAL answer if u're lookin for one, as did i.
Profile Image for Maria.
Author 2 books28 followers
February 22, 2012
Primeiro requisitei este livro na biblioteca, e li-o, mas após isso, não consegui deixar de o ter e então comprei-o, extremamente barato.

Sempre gostei de Filosofia e de aventura e no dia em que descobri este livro, que envolvia ambos os dois géneros passei-me. Adorei o livro, imenso. Introduz-nos à filosofia de uma maneira soft, fazendo-nos ( pelo menos a mim) adorar a filosofia.
No fim do livro ficamos com aquela sensação de vazio, do tipo, já acabou? Além de nos fazer pensar em pessoas reais de uma maneira diferente ( o exemplo de Sócrates ou Aristóteles), faz-nos conhecer muitos outros filósofos de uma maneira divertida.
Invés de outros livros de filosofia em que se limitam a falar do que acham daquilo ou daquele escritor, este livro apresenta-nos vários assuntos, por exemplo a morte, através da perspectiva de um adolescente que se vê num novo mundo e vai ouvindo duas opiniões sempre contrárias sobre assuntos diferentes e ele, a pouco e pouco, começa a criar a sua própria opinião.

Arrebatador. Recomendo a todos :)
Profile Image for Kristen.
73 reviews10 followers
January 19, 2009
If you had studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford and then found yourself living in Addis Ababa, what would you do? Apparently, if you're Lucy Eyre, you write a delightful little novel about philosophy. The conceit here is that after death, philosophers can choose to enter a region called the World of Ideas and spend eternity on the questions that interested them in life. The story itself is a long thought experiment about how a still-living British teenager reacts to being introduced to philosophy by a wide array of philosopher characters, only some of whom I recognized. A painless introduction to some of the big philosophical questions. Definitely deserved the positive reviews on its jacket.
Profile Image for Marissa.
87 reviews
August 27, 2008
This book was extremely boring. I got to page 56 before I started skipping around to see if it got any better. Even the ending was dull; I didn't read the whole book, I just decided to read the ending to see if the end was more interesting than the beginning. It wasn't. There was absolutely nothing in it to hold my attention.

The main character is approached by a dead woman who is spending her afterlife in the World of Ideas, a place where philosophers or those who love philosophy may go when they die. He basically goes along with what she telling him because he thinks she hot.

I do not recommend this book to anyone.
Profile Image for Charissa.
167 reviews2 followers
August 27, 2014
Such fun!

It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but once I did I loved it. Ben is really quite average, which makes him a likable character perfect for the bet between two philosophers. Socrates thinks that philosophy will make anyone's life better, Wittgenstein argues the opposite. So they need a case study, enter Ben.

A fun way to explore some basics of philosophy and simply think about (or think about what other people think about) some of life's biggest and seemingly least important problems.

Great fun read for when you need something to pass the time during a weekend, or a trip somewhere. Definitely recommend this to most people.
Profile Image for Teresa.
33 reviews
July 19, 2008
I bought it for the title. Just was curious to find out where the title came from, so I bought it. If you imagine there is an afterlife where people sit around asking "why?" all day long, this is the book for you. Reminds me of what I thought heaven would look like when I was a kid. Tons of rooms and doors and different options of what to do and talk about all day long. Your tour guide is a 15 year old boy. I enjoyed the book very much.
Profile Image for Kelly.
240 reviews2 followers
decided-not-to-read
April 8, 2009
Found this at the Library today. Was wanting to get one more book (I wanted 3) and I had two already and just couldn't find another....Lila was growing impatient (she was being great up until this point looking at a Barbie display/collection) and was moaning to go downstairs. I grabbed just one more book, this one, and the heroine is named LILA! :)
It has a very quirky plot, and may enlighten me on philosophy as well.
Profile Image for Julie.
876 reviews
August 10, 2009
This book sounded really interesting, but there wasn't much to the actual story. It was like the author wanted to put a philosophy textbook (if there is such a thing) into a more palatable form for the masses. It got rather tiresome at times, but a few parts were definitely interesting. I think the part that struck me the most was the section where different philospher characters talked about what happiness is or isn't.
Mostly, I was just proud of myself for finishing it. :)
Profile Image for Erin.
18 reviews
September 17, 2007
this book is amazing! it is the story of this guy who gets to go to a kind of "limbo" between heaven and hell where dead philosophers live (if you can call it living). he is the key to the presidency of the limbo land, and socrates and wittgenstein are involved. if you liked i heart huckabees, you will love this book!
Profile Image for Andrew.
395 reviews8 followers
February 10, 2016
It began with a promising premise but as with most of the other reviewers here, I found it to dwell too heavily on philosophical debate and seemingly forget to continue the story. Much of the debating is very simplistic, definitely a beginners look at these ideas, and so I didn't feel too inclined to read on in regards to learning or thinking anything new.
Profile Image for Mia.
148 reviews3 followers
March 20, 2016
It began with a promising premise but as with most of the other reviewers here, I found it to dwell too heavily on philosophical debate and seemingly forget to continue the story. Much of the debating is very simplistic, definitely a beginners look at these ideas, and so I didn't feel too inclined to read on in regards to learning or thinking anything new.
Profile Image for Leslynn.
387 reviews79 followers
March 21, 2016
It began with a promising premise but as with most of the other reviewers here, I found it to dwell too heavily on philosophical debate and seemingly forget to continue the story. Much of the debating is very simplistic, definitely a beginners look at these ideas, and so I didn't feel too inclined to read on in regards to learning or thinking anything new.
Profile Image for JulieK.
947 reviews7 followers
March 29, 2008
This is basically a Philosophy 101 class (with lots of debates) in the form of a novel. Once I started thinking of it in that way instead of expecting a compelling story in its own right, I started enjoying it more.
Profile Image for Susan.
245 reviews
June 25, 2008
Someone might find Eyre's concept of a "World of Ideas" afterlife fascinating, but the way the story was crafted lacked substance. It felt more like juvenile fiction.

...Or like reading someone's Philosophy 101 creative term paper assignment.
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