The Dead Philosophers' Cafe : University of Notre Dame Press : 9780268008949 : 0268008949 : 20 Mar 2002 : Eleven-year-old Nora K. received Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World as a birthday present, and in it she read about Plato's theory of ideas. One problem especially intrigued her: What about the Platonic idea of the dinosaur? Ideas are timeless and cannot die. The dinosaurs, however, became extinct ages ago. Does the idea of the dinosaur still exist all the same? Could it even be that the material world is a dream and time an illusion? Moreover, is there such a thing as free will, or is everything predetermined? Is the soul eternal? Do animals have a consciousness? Is the universe infinite? Is there such a thing as objective truth? Does God exist, and why is there evil in the world? These are some of Nora's questions which prompted her correspondence with Vittorio Hösle, a philosopher by profession, who invents a wonderful philosophical fantasy. Taking the film Dead Poets Society as