Philosophy
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8correct to beat the crowd
50 free philosophy trivia questions with answers. Dive into the world of philosophical thought with our engaging trivia quiz. Whether you're a student of philosophy or simply curious about life's big questions, this quiz will test your knowledge of ethics, metaphysics, logic, and the greatest minds in Western and Eastern philosophy. See how well you understand the fundamental concepts that have shaped human thinking.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Greek philosopher is associated with a question-and-answer method of inquiry?
Socrates
In Plato's Theaetetus, Socrates compares his questioning to midwifery, drawing understanding out of his partners rather than putting it in.
Q 02In which of Plato's works does he present the Allegory of the Cave, in Book VII?
Republic
Republic presents the cave in Book VII, to compare 'the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature'.
Q 03What Kantian concept says an action is moral if its maxim can be universalised without contradiction?
Categorical Imperative
The Categorical Imperative, set out in Kant's 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, judges an action by whether its maxim could be willed as a universal law, not by its consequences.
Q 04Which 20th-century philosopher introduced the concept of 'Dasein'?
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger gave Dasein, ordinary German for 'existence' and already used by Kant and Hegel, its special sense of human being-in-the-world in Being and Time (1927).
Q 05Which branch of philosophy is concerned with the nature of knowledge, its acquisition, and its limits?
Epistemology
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It investigates what knowledge is, how it is acquired, and to what extent it is possible for human beings to know things.
Q 06'Cogito, ergo sum' ('I think, therefore I am') is a cornerstone of whose philosophy?
René Descartes
René Descartes made it the 'first principle' of his philosophy, the foundational certainty in his quest for indubitable knowledge.
Q 07Which philosopher proposed 'tabula rasa', the idea that we are born without innate mental content?
John Locke
John Locke argued in his 1689 Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the mind begins as 'white paper, void of all characters'; the Latin tag tabula rasa was attached to his view later.
Q 08Which Cynic philosopher lived in a ceramic jar and wandered Athens by day with a lit lantern, 'looking for a man'?
Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic, famously met Alexander the Great at Corinth around 336 BC and asked the conqueror only to step out of his sunlight.
Q 09Which ethical framework is often summarized by the phrase 'the greatest good for the greatest number'?
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism, developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, judges acts by their outcomes, which is why it is classed as a consequentialist theory.
Q 10Which philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium emphasises virtue, reason and harmony with nature?
Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. It teaches that virtue, reason, and living in accordance with nature are key to achieving 'eudaimonia' (flourishing) and tranquility.
Q 11Which English philosopher introduced the runaway-trolley thought experiment in a 1967 paper?
Philippa Foot
Foot's original version was a 'trolley driver' dilemma; Judith Jarvis Thomson later added the bystander and footbridge variants that made it famous.
Q 12What does Aristotle call the desirable middle ground between two extremes?
Golden Mean
Aristotle's Golden Mean, worked out in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, treats each virtue of character as a mean between two vices, such as courage between cowardice and rashness.
Q 13Which philosophical school holds reason to be the primary source of knowledge, in contrast to empiricism?
Rationalism
Q 21The 'Will to Power' is a central idea in the philosophy of which German thinker?
Friedrich Nietzsche
The 'Will to Power' is a fundamental concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. It describes what Nietzsche believed to be the main driving force in humans: achievement, ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in life.
Q 22Which French existentialist wrote Being and Nothingness?
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre's *Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology* (1943) is a seminal work in existentialist philosophy, exploring themes of consciousness, freedom, responsibility, and the nature of human existence.
Q 23Which rationalist philosopher developed the theory of 'monads'?
Rationalism regards reason as the chief origin and test of knowledge, giving it precedence over faith, tradition or the sensory experience that empiricism stresses.
Q 14Which ancient writer preserved the ship-with-replaced-planks puzzle in his life of Theseus?
Plutarch
Plutarch records in his Life of Theseus that Athenians kept replacing the ship's planks; Thomas Hobbes later asked what happens if a second ship is rebuilt from the discarded ones.
Q 15Which English philosopher set out social contract theory in his 1651 book Leviathan?
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes argued in Leviathan for a strong sovereign to escape the 'state of nature', a 'war of all against all'.
Q 16The ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Plato was known by what name?
The Academy
Plato's Academy took its name from a grove sacred to the hero Akademos outside Athens; the Lyceum, the Garden and the Stoa were the later schools of Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno.
Q 17Which ancient Greek philosopher is considered the founder of Skepticism, advocating suspension of judgment?
Pyrrho of Elis
Pyrrho of Elis, who is said to have travelled to India with Alexander the Great's army, founded the school of Skepticism whose goal was tranquillity through suspending judgment (epoché).
Q 18Which English jurist and 'greatest happiness' theorist devised the 'felicific calculus'?
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham set out the felicific calculus in his 1789 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; his preserved 'auto-icon' has been kept at University College London since 1850.
Q 19Which philosopher developed the theory of historical materialism with Friedrich Engels?
Karl Marx
Karl Marx framed it as a response to German idealism and to the classical economics of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, calling the economy the base and law and ideology the superstructure.
Q 20Which Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician was killed by an Alexandrian mob in 415 AD?
Hypatia
Hypatia, who taught Neoplatonist philosophy and mathematics in Alexandria, was murdered by a Christian mob in March 415 AD; she was preceded as a female mathematician there by Pandrosion.
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz set out his theory of monads in the 1714 Monadology, about 90 numbered paragraphs written in French during his last stay in Vienna.
Q 24Which philosopher wrote 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent' in his Tractatus?
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, concluded his *Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus* with the statement, 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent,' emphasizing the limits of language and logic.
Q 25Which French philosopher wrote The Second Sex and explored the concept of 'the Other'?
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir, a French existentialist philosopher and feminist, authored *The Second Sex* (1949), a groundbreaking work that analyzes the oppression of women and explores the concept of woman as 'the Other' in patriarchal society.
Q 26'Power-knowledge' and 'discourse' are central to which postmodern French philosopher?
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault introduced 'power-knowledge' (le savoir-pouvoir) to analyse how power, knowledge and discourse shape social institutions and the individual.
Q 27Which philosopher explored "the absurd" in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus"?
Albert Camus
Albert Camus's 1942 essay locates the absurd in the clash between our need for meaning and the 'unreasonable silence' of the universe, and concludes that we must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Q 28Which 19th-century philosopher, called the 'Father of Existentialism', emphasised individual choice and the 'leap of faith'?
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard published much of his work under pseudonyms such as Johannes Climacus and Victor Eremita, and spent his last years in a public feud with the Danish state church.
Q 29Which ancient Chinese philosopher is traditionally credited with founding Taoism?
Laozi
Laozi is traditionally credited with the Tao Te Ching too, and some traditions hold that he became an immortal hermit.
Q 30Confucianism originated in which country?
China
Confucianism is a comprehensive philosophical system developed by Confucius in ancient China. It has profoundly influenced Chinese culture, emphasizing ethics, morality, family loyalty, and social harmony.