One of the most basic philosophical questions and a guiding force through Sophie's World is the question, who are we? As shown in Sophie's World, the concepts of philosophy have been in a constant state of change throughout history, philosopher contradicting philosopher over and over in an endless cycle. Because of philosophy's constant state of change, one of the earliest philosophers, such as Democritus, would have a different opinion on the question of who we are, than a Greek philosopher like Plato or a 17th century philosopher like Descartes.
             The natural philosophers sought to gain knowledge on what everything was comprised of. Democritus, the last of the natural philosophers, hit the nail on the head when he theorized that everything was made of atoms. Democritus thought everything was comprised of an infinite amount of tiny particles called atoms. However, according to Democritus, a materialist, believed that there was no intangible life force or soul in the human body. However, he divided the human body into two categories of atoms, body atoms, which construct the physical body and the senses, and soul atoms, which, Democritus described as the consciousness and mind of the body.
             Like Democritus, Plato believed the human body was comprised of a two different parts a body, and a reasoning part. While Democritus used terms like body atoms and soul atoms, Plato used terms such as "the world of senses" and "the world of ideas". Again, like Democritus, Plato believed that the five senses belonged to the body and to the body only, and like Democritus, the soul portion of the body contained the reasoning processes. However, unlike Democritus, Plato believed man had an immortal soul, which exists in the world of ideas and reason, a soul with no end, it goes on long before its birth and far afterwards. Plato also believed the immortal soul began in the presence of his "idea world" wher
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