Which Philosopher Am I?

Take this quiz to find out!

Put your thinking cap on and stare pensively into the distance…because it’s time to find out which influential philosopher you are! 🤔💭

Just answer these questions, and we’ll match you with the philosopher whose personal philosophy is most similar to yours. Click “Start Quiz” to get started!

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Questions Overview

1. Would you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist?
  1. Optimist.
  2. Pessimist.
  3. Neither! I’m a realist.
2. What matters most to you?
  1. Truth
  2. Perfection
  3. Harmony
  4. Reason
  5. Freedom
  6. Morality
  7. Independence
  8. Is it bad to say nothing?
3. You've got a big decision to make. How do you figure out the right thing to do?
  1. I think the situation through logically and rationally.
  2. I reflect on my past experiences for insight.
  3. I rely on both logic and my past experiences.
  4. I do whatever feels right to me in the moment.
4. You find a $100 bill on the ground. What do you do?
  1. Try to find the person who dropped it.
  2. I pocket it. It's mine now!
  3. I take it, but then I give it to someone who needs it more than me.
5. Do you agree more with absolute morality (certain actions are absolutely right or wrong), or moral relativism (right and wrong depend on perspective)?
  1. Absolute morality.
  2. Moral relativism.
  3. Honestly, I can't decide.
6. Do you think there's such a thing as objective reality?
  1. Yes. There's such a thing as objective truth!
  2. No. There's no such thing as fact, just our interpretations.
  3. Maybe. We don't have enough evidence to say either way.
7. What do you think the purpose of life is?
  1. To understand the world.
  2. To discover perfection.
  3. To find happiness and peace.
  4. To learn as much as possible.
  5. To do the right thing.
  6. To make the world a better place.
  7. I'm not sure life has an objective purpose.
8. What do you think holds society together?
  1. Our common thirst for knowledge and virtue.
  2. People's sense of duty to their family and friends.
  3. The laws we agree to follow.
  4. The objective morality we all have a sense of.
  5. Nothing—society is pretty fragile!
9. What makes you feel the happiest?
  1. Reading or learning something new.
  2. Spending time with my family.
  3. Spending time out in nature.
  4. Doing something kind for someone else.
  5. Being by myself.
10. And finally, which of these quotes resonates with you the most?
  1. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
  2. "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”
  3. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”
  4. “I think, therefore I am.”
  5. “No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
  6. "Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”
  7. “Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life.”
  8. "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

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The Most Influential Philosophers in History

  • Lao Tzu (c. 6th century–5th century BCE): Chinese philosopher known for Taoism. Taoism centers on living in harmony with the Tao (or “the Way”), which is the natural underlying principle of the universe.[1]
  • Confucius (551–479 BCE): Chinese philosopher known for Confucianism, a philosophy which is primarily concerned with achieving harmony, which it considers to be the most important social value. It strongly emphasizes morality, social order, mercy, the fulfillment of responsibilities, and reverence for one’s ancestors.[2]
  • Socrates (c. 470 BCE–399 BCE): Greek philosopher known for developing the Socratic Method, which involves asking a series of questions to encourage dialogue about complex ideas and arrive at the truth. He is considered the founder of Western philosophy.[3]
  • Plato (c. 428–348 BCE): Greek philosopher and student of Socrates known for his Theory of Forms, which suggests that the physical world we perceive is just an imperfect shadow of the real world, which is made up of perfect or ideal “forms.” He famously illustrated this theory with the Allegory of the Cave in The Republic.[4]
  • Aristotle (384–322 BCE): Greek philosopher and student of Plato known for inventing the field of formal logic. He was also famous for being a polymath (someone whose knowledge spans many fields), and he made important contributions to rhetoric, criticism, physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, ethics, and politics.[5]
  • Epicurus (341-270 BCE): Greek philosopher known for Epicurianism, a philosophy that identifies pleasure as the highest good, with the ultimate goal being freedom from both mental and physical pain through moderation, simple living, and friendship.[6]
  • René Descartes (1596–1650): French philosopher and mathematician known for his famous phrase Cogito, ego sum (“I think, therefore I am”), as well as developing the techniques that made the field of algebraic (or “analytic”) geometry possible.[7]
  • John Locke (1632–1704): English philosopher whose works were foundational to political liberalism and modern philosophical empiricism. His ideas inspired the European Enlightenment and the United States Constitution.[8]
  • David Hume (1711–1776): Scottish Enlightenment philosopher known for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism, arguing that all ideas come from sensory experience, so there can be no overarching theory of reality or knowledge of anything beyond experience.[9]
  • Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): German Enlightenment philosopher known for synthesizing the rationalism of René Descartes and the empiricism of Francis Bacon, which ushered in a new way of thinking about epistemology (the theory of knowledge), metaphysics, and ethics.[10]
  • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797): English philosopher and writer who advocated for the social and educational equality of women. Her 1792 work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a foundational feminist text.[11]
  • Karl Marx (1818–1883): German philosopher, economist, and revolutionary, and one of the two authors of The Communist Manifesto. He is known for his critique of capitalism and advocacy for communism.[12]
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): German philosopher famously associated with Nihilism, or the theory that life has no intrinsic meaning, value, or purpose. In Nietzsche’s view, there was no objective order structure in the world except what we give it, which means that we can actively create our own values.[13]
  • Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855): Danish philosopher known as the father of existentialism. His work focused on the concepts of free will, self-expression, and the search for meaning in the human experience.[14]
  • Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980): French philosopher, playwright, and novelist known as one of the central figures of existentialism. He was famous for his ideas on human freedom, responsibility, and the meaninglessness of existence.
  • Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986): French existentialist philosopher known for her groundbreaking 1949 work The Second Sex, which is considered a foundational text for modern feminism.

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Taoism
  2. ↑ https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/ethno-med/chinese/fund-of-knowledge/fund/beliefs.html
  3. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates
  4. ↑ https://www.history.com/articles/plato
  5. ↑ https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle/
  6. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epicureanism
  7. ↑ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/
  8. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke
  9. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Hume
  1. ↑ https://philosophy.as.miami.edu/about-the-department/philosophy-of-education/seminal-figures/index.html
  2. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft
  3. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx
  4. ↑ https://iep.utm.edu/nihilism/
  5. ↑ https://www.masterclass.com/articles/soren-kierkegaard-life-and-philosophy#3nu6vg7jo3406uPOrr2rZL